God of this City

Carthage is by no means a huge metropolis, in fact it is nothing more than a dried up town with interesting historical roots and a few quality local restaurants. There are no bars, music venues, movie theaters, or malls. If you live here it is probably because you have a good reason to be here. I don't think many people stumble across Carthage on a map and decide to move in. However, I would not trade one day I have lived in this "sleepy Southern town". It has truly been an experience, and an incredible blessing for Cyndy and me to start our married lives in this community. I am sure Cyndy thought I was crazy when I told her I was moving back to Moore County after graduating from UNC, and was probably not far away from breaking the engagement and calling off the wedding when I bought our house in Carthage. But even she has grown to love "Sweet Carthage", a nickname given to our town by local businesses.

Even with the absence of many "perks" others may enjoy in larger towns and cities, one thing Carthage can still boast is a sense of community. If you drive down McReynolds St. you will still see white ribbons hanging from nearly every business or store front expressing solidarity as our town continues to heal from the nursing home massacre. If you walk down our street, you will more than likely be greated by Rev. and Mrs. Graham working in their yard, or another Graham (Al) will stop and talk on his way to meet friends for breakfast, lunch, or dinner (I am pretty sure he goes out for every meal). There are a few experiences that stick out in my mind about the people here that I will not forget. Like when Ceilidh was born and a family friend was thoughtful enough to bring by a pink ribbon for the front door, or when Kenan died and three days later I was studying for the GRE at the local coffee shop and out of the blue a couple eating there expressed there sympathy.

You are probably wondering where I am going with this post, and how it is connected to the video I embeded. To start, as we leave Carthage I truly believe God has a plan for this town, as he does all other towns that dot the map. Second, the story Aaron Boyd shares in this video is inspiration to me that it is time to move on and obtain a degree that can hopefully be used to further God's plans for humanity. There are hearts breaking everwhere, in every home, in every city. There are children that are abandoned, abused, neglected, sold into slavery, forced to fight wars they are too innocent to understand. As Aaron says, we are the Church, it is time to be the Church.

I do not know where God will direct us in the future, honestly He could place us right back in good ole Moore County. Something I would not be opposed to. Either way, as we venture out in less than two months to Chapel Hill, we can go in cofidence knowing that He is the God of Carthage, Chapel Hill, and any other place our lives will take us. Greater things have yet to come, and greater things are still to be done.

--Andrew