Well, if you follow this blog at all, you probably have realized that I have taken a bit of a break from posting anything. Well, this came as a result from some health issues and just some busyness in life. I blame the iron :)
When all has been said and done, after seeing a lot of people in white coats, I have found out that I have some messed up iron levels. I never realized the impact low iron can have on a person until it happened to me. So, things are now on the up and up, and I feeling like my old self again, which is nice.
I just want to say thanks to all of those who have had me on their prayer list and yes, I do respond to Ironman :)
I will be continuing to post from now on and I want to start by reflecting on what the Body of Christ is really all about. In the midst of my bouts with dizziness and doctor visits, so many people reached out to me. It was so uplifting, and I have found myself a bit overwhelmed with the compassion and love I have received.
When thinking about what it means to be a Christian, I would contend that the idea of being a community needs to be directly linked with the definition. So often, we are pushed to conceptualize the "church" as this institution that we consider the "other". Yet, Jesus always was connected intimately with his disciples. Almost everywhere that he went, he had his disciples, his "community", with him. He lived with them, ate with them, prayed with them...it was always about them, together.
And, as Jesus went to pray about his final days on this earth, before the cross, he even took his disciples with him. They sat with him, in a garden, in the midst of some of the most difficult moments in his life. He was not alone.
Instead of thinking about church as the institution, I wonder if we should strive to think about it truly as our community, people who we can cleve to when life gets hard and when it is good. We celebrate communion once a month, (or more if you are part of another faith community), and each time we partake in it...we are communing, together. Our journey, in faith, is about each other, living this life with people.
In a world that is continuing to build porches on the back of their houses instead of the front, and in a world where isolation is occurring more and more, let us be a community that is defined by being a community of faith, directly linked and connected with one another through the good moments... and the hard ones.
Grace and Peace,
Micah
ECCLESIASTES 4:12b - a rope that is woven with three strands is not easily broken.
ReplyDeleteGod gives us this principle of a three-strand rope because He wants us to be wrapped and bound together. He wants us to gather in His name. He wants a unified body of Christ, not many bodies of Christ. He wants individuals to find strength in tight, durable communities. In the body of Christ, like many other venues, unity equals strength.
(The things we learn in a Disciples class :)
Micah-
ReplyDeleteWe were obviously on the same wavelength this week. It is such an amazing thing to know that my children are being shown God's love outside of the four walls that we call church each week. The wonderful people from church that work in our school gives this parent at least a feeling of peace knowing they are there, taking care of them. They go above and beyond what their duties entail consistantly. I don't know if it takes a village to raise a child but it sure does help!!!!!!
:)