We weren't meant to live on an island. Isolated from others and not sharing life. Someone asked me the question the other day, "If you were on a deserted island, what three things would you have with you." I used to have my staple answers like...my iPod (with an unlimited battery life-that counts right?), my favorite book, a pillow, matches, pictures of friends and family...okay that's more than three but anyway. I was thinking about this and I realized I would much rather have three people on that island with me than stuff. We weren't created to live life alone.
I ache and crave for deep community. I am blessed that I don't live on an island and that I can share life with so many wonderful people. It's not always easy, it can be messy and sometimes it leaves me wishing I did just live alone on a deserted island, but God created us for community. God created us to be in relationship with people.
Community is being able to sit across the table at a coffee shop with a friend, tell her your deep insecurities and she doesn't look at you with judgement or condemnation, but with love, acceptance, and speaks truth and encouragement into you. Community is spending a day with someone and it doesn't matter if you're shopping, sitting at the lake or playing a card game you know your life is richer because it was spent with them. Community is choosing to walk alongside someone even if their life looks nothing like yours. Community is knowing that people aren't perfect, situations come along that suck and things aren't always easy, but even in those times we can celebrate life and look to those people in our lives and know they are there.
I have been blessed by the people who make up the community in my life. I've been reminded lately what true community looks like...what it can truly look like to live life together. No it hasn't just been because all is well and things are going great...stuff is hard. Conversations have happened and choices have been made while tears are shed and that's okay. It isn't just in the good times when you need people in your life, but the times when life is uncertain and you feel like everyone could abandon you, but the beautiful thing is...they don't.
