Community: A Glimpse of Life with Team Zion
Messy. Emotionally as we love each other through struggles, bad moods, and that dreadful time of the month; and quite literally with the endless amount of sand and hair on the floor, dishes in the sink, and clothes littered everywhere in our tiny little house.
Love. It’s an action, and a choice. You quickly learn that love isn’t all about the feels because, man… you don’t always feel the love. I don’t sweep the floor, wash the dishes, or let my teammate word dump all her emotions on me because I have this overwhelming desire to do these things, it’s because I’m loving my team through actions.
We don’t really have a say in our feelings. Some days we feel happy, others we feel sad. But we do have a say in our actions. Loving people is a choice, and we control whether we love well or not.
Love is also about acceptance. To fully accept someone is to embrace who they are, and all that they are, despite the things that are different from you, or the things that you would do differently.
The majority of people aren’t like you, and I’ve found that differences are one of the biggest factors of annoyances and reasons of why we turn away from people rather than choosing to love them. Differences of personality, interests, or even the mood you’re in.
So when my teammate is in a bad mood and everything in me wants to walk away from them, I am called to look past the fact that they are “inconveniencing me” and give them a hug. Tell them how much I appreciate them. Show them the unconditional love of the Father.
Or when my other teammate is immensely distraught and emotional over something I find very small, instead of telling them to get over it (what my flesh is telling me to do), I hold their hand and walk with them through it.
And what is so amazing about all of this, is my team is all loving me and accepting all of me in the same way. There’s no need for insecurities when the people around you love you despite all your messes, because we are messy! We are moody and fleshly and prone to selfishness. But once you stop looking at people for their messes, and stop putting up a wall every time someone is different from you or offends you, and start asking God for His eyes for people, you start to see the beauty in them. You start to see the character traits of God in them.
And of course we know that this is only done by the grace and strength of God. There are days where it is extremely hard to give that hug, or to hold their hand, but that is what is so beautiful about grace. Jesus is the ultimate Lover. He has been holding our hand and walking with us from the start.
I pray that you are blessed by this blog and that the love of Christ would flow powerfully through you!
I miss you all and would greatly appreciate your prayers!
Much love,
Sabrina
