A New Community
When I was in seminary, I fell into the most amazing community I’ve ever known. It started on my first day of classes when a guy asked if I wanted to come over for a Bible study that night, and continued on as a group of us met every week for the entire three years I spent at Fuller. We laughed together, cried together, had disagreements, worked it out, hung out all the time. Later, these guys were first on the call list in good times and bad, the highlight of a visit to a conference in their area, and groomsmen and ushers in my wedding. This kind of community and fellowship I never thought I’d find again.
Since we’ve been in CO Springs, however, I have been blown away with how the Lord has blessed me with something very similar. Not only do Christina and I meet with the large group (anywhere from 12-20) weekly, but I meet with all of the guys on Monday mornings so that we can lift each other up in prayer and encouragement. I’ve been able to have conversations about my marriage, my life, my theology. We’ve been skiing together, and I’ve been offered moving help, carpentry work, and basically free car repair.
And while I value this so much, my heart breaks a little when I realize how rare this phenomenon of community truly is. The more I learn about God, the more I am convinced that He desires this for all of His children. He Himself exists solely in community as the Trinity, and cannot possibly exist outside of that. Yet, we, God’s own children, insist that we are fine on our own and seem to choose independence over INTERdependence time and time again. Somehow we’ve been taught that leaning on others for anything is a sign of weakness, and that may be true, but nowhere do I read in Scripture that God has a disdain for weakness. In fact, over and over again, He speaks of weakness as an incredibly positive trait, one that is absolutely necessary in order for us to truly experience life as He intends for us to experience it.
So I’m pretty excited for what the Lord has gifted us with in this new-found community. I’m fully aware that we’re still in the honeymoon phase, and that there will be rocky times in our relationships with each other. But I know that’s just how community works, and the immense joy and pleasure that comes from this blessing will be more than enough to pull us through. Because this is something worth fighting for, something that I know God desires for us, and something that will be even more amazing than it is now.
