A Front Row Seat

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Let us think of ways to motivate one another to acts of love and good works.  And let us not neglect our meeting together, as some people do, but encourage one another, especially now that the day of his return is drawing near.    Hebrews 10:24-26 (NLT)

 

Why does God want me to be in community with other believers?  Why can’t I just do church on my own?  People always make things so complicated and messy. 

 

Could it be that, being in community with others causes us to grow in ways we never would on our own?

 

This past year, there was a young woman in my Bible Study who slunk in with a hoodie over her head and slouched in her chair not making a single comment the whole evening until we got to prayer time.  When we did, she blurted out that she didn’t want to be there.  She wasn’t going to come but her sister had “made” her. 

 

In the weeks that followed, she stuck it out and came every time, whether she felt like it or not.  Over the course of the year, the group encouraged, challenged and supported her as she slowly surrendered her life to God. 

 

We had front row seats, as we watched God transform a life and it was breathtaking!

 

At the end of the year, she wanted to be baptized.  When we were meeting together to talk about her baptism I reminded her of the “hoodie week”.  She gasped and said, “God has changed me so much, I don’t even recognize that person anymore!”  That’s what transformation does.

 

Living in community is God’s design.  It’s what He desires for each one of us.  Community often brings joy and sorrow, beauty and pain, healing and messiness but don’t let the dark side keep you from experiencing the hope of community.  The dark and the light both serve their purpose in making us more like our Savior.

 

Lord, I confess that I am drawn to the comfortable and simple.  I don’t want complicated and difficult.  I want easy.  But that’s not Your plan, that’s mine.   Today, I choose to be in community with Your followers even if it’s messy because I know it is what you designed especially for me.  Amen.