there are so many things in life that we think we understand until we either live it or experience it, and then we have this lightbulb moment and go “ooohhhh now i get it!” — this has been my reality with community.
i’ve always known what community is – in multiple different aspects. in the last 4 or 5 years of my walk in faith, i have heard and learned more about community within the church and biblical community. i always knew it was needed and necessary for one to grow within their own faith, but i have had my lightbulb moment with biblical community the past 6 months.
in january, i found myself with no community. no one backing me up in life. no one pushing me towards the Lord. no one keeping me accountable with my faith. and no one that i was doing these things for either. then i got involved at Awaken church here in charleston. i fully immersed myself into a community. i knew that i needed it. and at first, it’s hard. you’re the new person. you’re the one who doesn’t know people’s stories and they don’t know yours. but yall….that’s the best part!!! learning about people, and learning how their story makes them who they are.
we are constantly surrounded by people. we may not always know these people, but there are always people. recently i have found myself being emotionally and spiritually drained and dried out by the people i am surrounded with.
i met with a really great friend (shoutout to ya hales) for brunch yesterday morning and we ended up sitting and talking for four hours. apologies to our poor server who was very ready for us to leave…oops.
we were both just feeling empty and run dry from the weeks we had had prior. and we discussed rest. what does rest mean in a spiritual sense? it does not always mean to take a nap (although i do love a good nap) or get more sleep at night. sometimes rest is resting in the presence of God. or resting in time spent with fellow believers and filling each other back up.
one thing that haley mentioned to me that i have continued to think about is the difference between life-giving friendships and friendships that are not quite so life-giving.
as i left spending time with my small group tonight – that community that i mentioned i had found within awaken church – i realized that each of those friendships is so life-giving. tuesday nights are my nights to recharge with those people. we come together to sharpen each other and prepare each other for the world full of darkness and hard things, but still sharing the light of jesus. what a refreshing thing it is to know that i have that group of people to be my constant.
being a part of that small group and forming the bonds and relationships has shown me community. it has shown me how community is supposed to work and how jesus meant for community to look like. jesus had community with his disciples – they were his small group. we are just a bunch of disciples coming together and learning to be more like jesus.
what excites me the most about this? i will be living in constant community for all 11 months of the race. im not sure if you understand just how freakin’ PUMPED for that i am. wowzer.
my cup is definitely running over tonight.
xx – mags.
