FOR THE GOOD OF THE CITY

A couple of weeks ago, Heather and I were enjoying a Saturday morning at Ross’ Landing. The Tennessee River had swollen thanks to the seemingly endless rain we received in February. The Southern Belle Riverboat had to build a “gangplank” out of sandbags to get people on board. The large concrete steps that were renovated in 2016 were partially covered. I couldn’t help but notice a row of lights sticking up out of the water. Several feet below the water, those lights were attached to the inundated Chattanooga Pier.

There was a LOT of water. However, if you know your regional history, a flood like this one is minor compared to the challenges Chattanooga faced prior to TVA’s taming of the Tennessee River. One of the worst floods ever was in 1867. This map shows the extent of the flood. Basically all of downtown was under water except for the hills that currently sit under UTC/Erlanger and AT&T Field.

After that flood, the residents of Chattanooga came up with an interesting plan - raise the city. Over the course of the next several years, residents would begin to raise the streets of the city - anywhere from 3 to 15 feet.

When all was said and done, a 40-block area of downtown was raised an entire story - from the banks of the river all the way to 9th Street, which we now know as MLK. Many of the basements in the older downtown buildings were at one time the first floors of those buildings. If you’ll pay attention, you can still see clues of this long-forgotten effort to save a city - but you have to look down to see it - because most of the clues are at shin level.

This reminds me about Paul’s words to the church at Philippi. In Philippians 2:3-4, he said, “Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves. Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others.”

In order for Chattanooga to survive, the principles of Paul’s words had to be put to work. Everyone involved had to give up something significant - the first floor of their businesses - in order for the larger community to flourish.

Christians could learn a lot from the Chattanooga street-raising project. As the church, we have an inescapable calling to shine the light of the Gospel into a dark and dying world. If we allow our own self-interests to get in the way of that calling, then we had might as well close the doors and go home.

However, Paul’s words still ring true - “Let each of you look, not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others.” As we seek to reach our community - to reach our One’s - we need to remember that our interests are subservient to our neighbors’ interests. We need to ask ourselves a very important question: in what ways have we made our self interests more significant than than the interests of our neighbors?

When we start asking that question, we might just find that the answer will require us to give up the first floor of our businesses so that our neighbor’s business can thrive. At the very least, we might have to give up our preferences and our pews for the sake of our neighbors.