We all know former residents of our state who have left Minnesota for one reason or another. Here are the facts:
About 19,400 residents abandoned Minnesota between July 2021 and July 2022, according to the U.S. Census Bureau's 2022 population.
The number leaving the state was softened by 14,194 international migrations into the state. The state saw a net 5,206 migrations away from the area.
On net, the state gained 5,713 people, as 64,821 births outpaced 53,204 deaths, boosting population.
I too have a desire to leave Minnesota but not for the reason you might think. It’s no secret that I am not a fan of the cold. I never have been. As a child in Chicago, my hands and feet were always cold in the winter. My mom would bundle me in layers and put plastic bread bags on my feet inside my rubber boots.
We have had at least 1” of snow cover in the Twin Cities for more than 100 consecutive days with no end in sight. Today we woke to a morning temperature of 8 degrees. But the weather has nothing to do with why I want to leave Minnesota and nothing to do with why I am not leaving Minnesota anytime soon.
Minnesota has changed since I moved here at the turn of the century, and I want out. Both the data and anecdotes support my claim.
Minnesota’s Downward Spiral
Unlike many states, Minnesota government is flush with cash, to the tune of nearly $19 billion dollars. Our state legislature and our governor have no intention of returning the money to the people, and worse, have proposed tax increases on the citizenry. In a recent conversation with one of the hard-working men in our church, he expressed his frustration. He had recently completed his state income tax filing and owes the state a few hundred dollars. All year long his company has withheld his state taxes, but the withholding was not enough for our state. They demand he pay more. The few hundred dollars will mean nothing to the state but will be significant for this man. When he says, “I want out,” I sympathize with him.
Last week, our governor gloated for the cameras when he signed an executive order by which he commands access to so called “gender affirming care.” By the action, the governor has taken one more giant step to silence all dissenters who affirm there are only two genders and that puberty blockers and top and bottom surgery are immoral. When someone tells me they want to live in a different state where such wickedness is not promoted by the state government, I get it. I want out too.
Earlier this winter I watched from my living room window a bizarre scene. We live on a mostly quiet street in a mostly quiet neighborhood of a mostly quiet suburb. It was the middle of the day on a Saturday afternoon when an odd movement caught my attention.
Across the street from my house, a driver was trying to get his vehicle off a fire hydrant. He had taken the corner too fast, slid on the snow-covered road, and landed on top of the bright red plug. Forward to reverse, over and again, the car lurched but did not release from its captor. A few seconds later the man emerged from the car, walking away from the vehicle in the direction he came. That seemed odd. Why wouldn’t he stay with the vehicle waiting for someone to come help? He walked right in front of my house carrying a woman’s purse. That was all I needed to see. We called the police, and you guessed it, the vehicle was stolen and probably the purse too. The perp was getting away as fast as possible.
Carjackings are on the rise in Minnesota, so much so that our attorney general has launched an investigation into the car manufacturers. Carjackers routinely use the vehicle while committing other crimes. Stealing cars for a joy ride is not the end goal, and carjackings are not the extent of violent crime in Minnesota. Recent killings at the Mall of America and a murder at St Paul’s Harding High School are the latest examples of an unsafe society. When people tell me they no longer go out after dark, I understand. When they say they want to move to a safer locale, maybe someplace rural, I get it. I want out too.
These are just a few of the changes in Minnesota over the last few decades. It’s not the same place where I raised my children. But I cannot leave, for the same reasons that Martin Luther and Martin Rinkart didn’t leave.
Shepherds Don’t Leave the Sheep
You know Martin Luther’s significant place in the Reformation, but do you remember that he was a pastor? And he pastored during a horrific time in European history. Briefly, the bubonic plague or Black Death raged across Europe before Luther’s time. Between 1347-1350, the plague killed one quarter of Europe’s population. The plague returned during Luther’s lifetime arriving in Wittenberg in 1527. Naturally, everyone who could leave the city did so as fast as they could. But not all could leave. Those without financial ability to relocate, those too ill to travel, and those with no place to go remained. Without holding hostage the consciences of any in the church, Martin and Katie Luther determined that they would stay despite the reality of the situation. They determined the brothers and sisters still in Wittenberg needed pastoral care. The unbelieving in the city needed a messenger of the gospel. At risk of their own health, they opened their home to the diseased and served those who remained. Shepherds don’t leave the sheep when trouble comes.
A century later Martin Rinkhart served as one of four pastors in Eilenburg, Germany. During his pastorate the Thirty Years’ War broke out. Historians teach that the Thirty Years’ War is the worst war ever fought on German soil, including the two World Wars. The war began in 1617. By 1637 the situation was so dire in Eilenburg that refugees fought in the streets over dead cats and birds. Dysentery and disease soon followed. The four pastors conducted ten or more funerals each day. Two of the pastors died from disease. The third fled for his life, leaving only Rinkhart to minister the Word of God to the city’s occupants. During his ministry, he conducted 4,480 funerals. His self-sacrifice is the stuff of legends. He gave away food and clothing, anything of his own possessions to relieve the suffering of the people he served. Later that same year, his wife died. He, however, survived the war and its aftermath. Shepherds don’t leave the sheep when trouble comes.
In 1636 Pastor Rinkhart wrote a hymn for his children to sing around the family meal, Now Thank We All Our God. All three verses are beautiful, but ponder with wonder the lines of the second.
O may this bounteous God
through all our life be near us,
with ever joyful hearts
and blessed peace to cheer us,
to keep us in his grace,
and guide us when perplexed,
and free us from all ills
of this world in the next.
I won’t be leaving Minnesota anytime soon. As long as the Lord wills, as long as the Lord’s people are in need of a pastor, as long as the lost in the Twin Cities need the gospel, and as long as God gives me voice and strength, I’m staying because shepherds don’t leave the sheep.
As always, thanks for reading, and I welcome your feedback and any suggestions you might have for an upcoming Lunchtime Musing.