Crowds

Crowds. Criss-crossing street intersections. Train stations. Shopping malls. 

In multiple directions.

Pressing up escalators. Hiking staircases. Moving ever forward into trains. Onto sidewalks. Through subways.

Crowds. In your face. Up close. Yet often silent. Solitary.

Eyes on their phones.

Looking down. Or away. Staring off into the distance. 

Loneliness

One week we walk among these masses. Mostly clothed in black and white. Grey. 

Neutral colors populating the crowds. With an occasional pop of color or design.

I’m struck by the daily movement of multitudes—passing one another anonymously.

So many stories untold. Loneliness in the crowd.

Hopelessness

While we’re holding on in a moving train. Jostled among commuters. I see public notices. Scrolling above the sliding doors.

Words running across a screen.

Announcing delays on such-and-such line. Because of a disturbance or accident on the tracks. 

Suicides, I’m told. Happening multiple times every day. 

Another afternoon, we’re crossing a bridge and see police cars stopped. Red lights flashing. People peering over the side to the waters below.

“A suicide. Most likely,” they say. Hopelessness abounds.

Sent ones

But that week we see hope. Meet new believers. And faithful ministers of the gospel.

On train after train. In crowd after crowd. We walk with His sent ones. Who speak the local heart language. And share light in the darkness.

One day we wait in a coffee shop for the next train. And a young woman sits alone at an adjacent table. 

Our friends begin a conversation with her.

And her face is open. Curious. 

He sends

Turns out, she just lost her job. Doesn’t know what’s next.

No one in the crowd knows her need.

But He does.

And He sends His servants to this specific place. Speaking gospel truth and hope.

For such a time as this. 

Crowds

The population of the world surpassed 8 billion people last month. Crowds live in cities all over this planet.

So we pray for the hopeless. Lost in crowds. 

And ask for more laborers to enter fields of people who’ve never heard the Good News. 

Thank the Good Shepherd. For He leaves the ninety-nine in search of one lost lamb. Sitting in the midst of a crowd.

What about you?

How do you pray in city streets and urban centers? 

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