Community Series Part 2

Community Series Part 2: We Need Each Other

I saw several people share this (the photo above) on my facebook the other day. At first glance, I thought it was cute and then dismissed it. But the longer I stared at the photo, I began to understand the true meaning. Above, you will see three people walking through life (literally walking, haha). As each person walks, there's a chasm he or she must get through. Someone walking alone will have a difficult time getting over the chasm. A person walking alone could try to leap across, invent a gadget, etc. to get to the other side. However, because they are holding each other up, each person is able to get through life. There's a t-shirt that has a stick figure kneeling in prayer that says - "someone's praying me through." When I first saw this t-shirt, I remember thinking it was kind of weird because I didn't understand the meaning. But I realized that everyone has highs in life as well as lows. There will be times when I may fall or go through a difficult season. This is when I need people to pray for me. But when I am doing well, I need to spend time to pray for my friends and those around me. As much as we would all like to always be strong, we will all eventually face a day when our strength fails us. Let's be a community that supports each other through the good times and bad. 

Community Series Part 1

God has placed on my heart to write about the topic of community for a while so this will be the beginning of the series titled "Community." For now, I am not completely sure which direction these following blog posts will go, but I hope to focus on different aspects of community, what it means to live in a community, and how God created us to be part of a community (in no particular order). I hope to pull information together from scripture, my experiences, and biology & psychology (but mainly scripture).

Looking back in my life, I am so thankful to have grown up in a loving community of believers - with a group of diverse group of people with many differences, but with one thing in common - Jesus. Growing up, I always assumed that all church communities were like a family as our church is, but I realize now although we may be small in numbers, there's something special about here. Though we are imperfect people, we serve a perfect God who lavishly and unconditionally loves each person. It doesn't matter whether you are young or old - you belong. I love the African proverb - "If you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far, go together." because it portrays what community looks like, and what our community looks like. We rejoice together. We suffer together. We mourn together. We pray together. We do life together. We go together.