In 2015, local ministries in Colorado Springs, Colorado, teamed up to serve the city, and COSILoveYou was born. Each fall, in an event called CityServe, the group sends believers out to serve the community.

Several years ago, my children and I were assigned to a downtown elementary school during CityServe. We cleaned. We pulled weeds. And we worked on an art project, lacing colored plastic tape through a chain-link fence in a way that approximated mountains. Simple, but surprisingly beautiful.

Whenever I drive past the school, our humble art project reminds me of Jeremiah 29. There, God  instructs His people to settle down and serve the city they were in. He commanded this even though they were in exile and didn’t want to be there.  

The prophet said, “Seek the peace and prosperity of the city to which I have carried you into exile. Pray to the Lord for it, because if it prospers, you too will prosper” (v. 7). The word peace here is the Hebrew word shalom. And it encompasses the idea of the wholeness and flourishing that only God’s goodness and redemption can bring.   

Amazingly, God invites each of us to be His agents of shalom—right where we are. We’re invited to create beauty and practice redemption in simple, concrete ways in the spaces He’s placed each of us.