Moving - Betraying the roots??

Our famliy decided earlier this year that we had enough of this neighbourhood and decided to move more north next year. That means we're leaving our house of 22 years and all the Scarborough roots behind. Some friends have joked (and every joke has its truth, else it wouldn't be funny) that I was betraying my Scarlem roots - I guess there was some sort of pride, or camaradarie in living in the so-called ghetto.

Well, just last week, one of my neighbours, the last of the 3 original families of this neighbourhood got beat down pretty badly. He was walking his dog with his wife at the park by my old primary school at 9pm and 2 teenage kids came to rob him. They beat his head with a baseball bat so hard that he needed 13 stitches and now he can't stand for more than 5 mins or look down without getting dizzy. He's about 70 years old. And what, they stole $10 from his wallet? How much could he be carrying if was was walking the dog? This is the type of thing that makes me so vexed. It was the total disregard and disrespect of life - they could have killed him for $10. Please pray for him and his family as they must be pretty shaken by this. As for me, I need to be reminded that God is the final judge - all must stand before him to give an account. And He reminded me yesterday:

Do not take revenge, my friends, but leave room for God's wrath, for it is written: "It is mine to avenge; I will repay," says the Lord. On the contrary: "If your enemy is hungry, feed him; if he is thirsty, give him something to drink. In doing this, you will heap burning coals on his head." (Romans 12:18-20)

ughh - a verse that i usually have no problems with - I'm having such a hard time with it when I think about these things. Which brings me to another thought on moving...

My friend and his mom live in Malvern and his mom vows never to leave, even though there were shootings right across the street. She vows that they must be the light in their neighborhood; the city on the hill (Matt 5:14). It had got me to think - wow, am I a coward? Was it not my wish to reach out to the urban poor - well, it came to our footsteps - while we were sleeping. And now we're packing up and running away to yuppie-ville? Though it's too late to be back-tracking now, I wish I had thought about this earlier, before influencing my parents on making the move-decision...