Praying outside the box: part 3b

Advent 2024

Taking a walk through nature to hear God is all very well. After all at the stressful times in his life Jesus would take time out to get away from everything and spend time with his Father God. As a lifestyle choice, I commend it, even though I am not very good at it.

But what about taking time in an urban environment. I am not talking about the leafy suburbs, they have a set of delights and challenges that I am not familiar with. The leafy suburbs are for me a place I travel through. The places I am familiar with are wild moorlands, green pastures and, in contrast, places of high-density housing and noisy roads of heavy traffic. Could God be here too?

In Huddersfield’s Greenhead Park, a skateboard park was built in what was previously two tennis courts. Within days it was covered in graffiti. The local newspaper and some people in the town denounced this as vandalism, some without seeing it.

I took a different view.

I saw that the skateboard park users customised it and made it their own. Even the waste bins are graffitied. There has never been a group claiming exclusive use, it is still open to anyone with a scooter skateboard or BMX. A bit of creative spray can design is much better to look at than dull grey concrete, anyway. If obscenities appear they are quickly overpainted, but fortunately this has rarely needed to be done.

Parks and canal towpaths can bring calm to urban areas, and I have enjoyed many a good walk or cycle on towpaths. But what about the real urban areas? Areas with a high population density and busy roads with traffic, including all its noise and smell. (Strangely, I have the superpower of distinguishing whether a passing car is running on ordinary or performance petrol by taste.)

Some ask, “How do we bring the presence of God into these places, particularly the more deprived ones?” My answer is that there is no need to. God is already there. There are three groups of people that the Bible keeps coming up with as those who God is on the side of: These are widows, orphans and foreigners. See Deuteronomy 10:14-19. Whenever we build walls to separate ourselves from other people we will find God on the other side of the wall.

Urban walking can feel like sensory overload. All the lights of advertising, the bustle of shopping centres, the traffic noise can become overwhelming.  Keeping God in mind can help, learning to take one thing at a time through the barrage of everything all at once.