Community

I just saw a squirrel scaling up a brick wall. I thought it was pretty cool.

So yesterday at church, I heard one of the best messages delivered by Dave, my pastor here in Belton. We’ve been going through of Gospel of John and I really like it. It’s a nice change from your typical topical sermons. Anyways, we were in John 13, which is where Jesus predicts Judas’ betrayal. Dave proceeds to talk about community and how the disciples were so immensely close to each other and Jesus. They were together almost 24/7 for about 3 years. Moving on to verse 34, Jesus gives us the command to love one another like He has loved us. People should know we are Christ followers by the way that we love.

Dave then spouts off some statistics that are very heart breaking. They pertain to the lack of community we have nowadays, especially in the U.S. People just don’t desire and value community anymore, but it’s what we’re designed for. Then he gave us 3 reasons for why close relationships have decreased: 1. It’s inconvenient. No one has time anymore and everyone is too busy. I personally get tired thinking about all the people I know that are tired right now. It honestly sucks. 2. It involves being vulnerable. We have to sometimes reveal things about ourselves that we feel no one should ever know. This is where I struggle the most. I completely abhor being vulnerable. Sure I have no problem telling people I don’t have it all together, but when it comes to what I actually do lack, the discussion is over. 3. We were betrayed by someone in the past. Everyone has and it’s hard to recover from. But the thing is, Jesus was betrayed worse than any of us could ever know. He absolutely knew what Judas was going to do, but He chose to love Judas anyways. And this is where our love should tie in. Loving people no matter what they have done to us and no matter what their past entails. This is frickin hard.

All this to say, I have started this blog in attempt to make myself more vulnerable. (And hopefully communicate with my Mom more. Ha) There will be blood, sweat, and tears and I probably won’t like this very much at first. But i think in the end, it could help me somewhat. The next step will be being vulnerable in person. I’ll save that for later in life. We’ll see…