A People Watcher's Dream

This isn't come as a huge shock to anyone, but my nosiness is not confined to listening, it has spread to observation and general snooping.

Yes, I am an intense people watcher.

There is nothing that fascinates me more than how people interact with each other. What they wear, how they carry themselves, how they interact with their friends, how they carry themselves in pobulic, how self aware they are, everything just fascinates me.

There are very few places in the world that are better to people watch then Downtown Chicago. Add in an abnormally warm day for the first weekend of November and you have the people coming out in droves, and there is no better tourist attraction then millenium park.

Millenium Park is full of tourists, chicago faithfull, and surbanites that are looking to get away from their normal day to day life. Between the bean, the bridge, the park grill, the face structures, and the brand new skydeck connecting to the modern wing of the Art Insititute, there is every type of person you can imagine.

There was the man that was painting the bean and the skyline around him, there was the couple that was taking tons of pictures cementing their tourist status, the couple doing their engagement pictures, and there was the people that I made akward eye conatct with, because they were people watching just as much as I was.

However, today was different. There was kind of a different vibe as I walked around the city.

One thing that I have always prayer for is a passion for the lost. I am not talking about people that don't know where there going, I am talking about the theological definition of lost. Every single person that lives in a day-to-day existence without knowing Jesus.

Self confession- I have never looked at people as lost. It's has something that has always bothered me. I don't really relate to mass evangelism or even street evangelism but I've always wanted to feel the conviction that evangelists feel day to day.

Today, I think I might have felt that for the first time. As we were walking outside of The Art Institute I was looking at each person as someone that needed ot hear about Jesus. Not assuming they didn't already know but more in the sense that I was doing them a disservice by not telling them.

Even beyond that, I was felt an overwhelming sense of burden for the city of Chicago. When I was sitting in Millenium Park I just felt this sense of peace in being in Chicago, because it is a town full of people that need Jesus.

Working at a missions organization I get asked all the time if I have the desire to go overseas. I politely explain my past international experience has confirmed my place here in Chicago. Today, I feel confident in the concept of Cook County being my mission field.

As a potential huge opportunity is presented to me, I am just reaffirmed that this opportunity would further my ministry here in Chicago. What is potentially the coolest thing is I will get the priveledge of serving Christ in one of the greatest cities in the world.