I am blessed. The Lord has blessed me in countless ways through he gift of community, relationships and love in friendship. When I look around I cannot help but notice that my world would be of so much less value and so less meaningful if I didn’t have the ones I love surrounding me. Last night I was reminded of just how precious, important and meaningful relationships and community really is. The joy that comes form love in friendship is unmistakable and irreplaceable. It is unique and rare. And something that should be, and can never be treasured too much. Yes the accountability part is difficult. And yes so is the hard truth. But in any real friendship-if it’s a real friendship at all-must involve both truth and grace. Without accountability, the foundation becomes unfirm. You might as well build your house on quick sand. If you authentically love and genuinely care about one another then you will hold one another accountable-not because it’s easy but because you love and care. Their heart is your heart. If it breaks so too does yours. If it cries out in joy, then yours cries out as well. Sometimes it can be far too easy to lose sight of the meaning and importance behind community with one another. We let our time become consumed by things that are far less important. Suddenly to-do lists and our busy lifestyles get the best of us. Before we know it we have become slaves to our calendars and scheduling books. We being to make less and less time for one another. Sharing life becomes less of a priority as we begin to sadly confuse and seriously mix up our priorities. We being making more time for things we say we value less and less time for things we value more-like community. We do not practice what we preach. We are now caught in a lie and humbled to our core. Our practice fails our theory. My priorities have certainly been pretty screwed up lately. And what I say I value has not been what my actions would prove to justify. Accountability was lost. Hard trust became a less relevant and more foreign term. And what I’ve noticed is this: as distance is created (inevitably as a result of less time being poured into sharing life together), walls are put up. And not just walls-but barricades! We get less vulnerable and put them up around the depths of our inner most beings and hearts. Or at least I can say this is true for me. Suddenly I feel the need to hide the dirty hallways of my heart. I panic that others-those that I love and who love me-will somehow think less of me. It’s a slippery slope and a vicious cycle. And if we don’t catch one another, it is a cycle that can be stayed on for far too long. I don’t know about you, but this is a cycle I want absolutely nothing to do with. Since I’ve come to college and finally learned for the first time in my life about the beauty of community and the real meaning of it, it has become water for me. I thirst for it and when I don’t have it, I don’t feel well at all. We must be poured into before we can ever hope to pour into others. How can we do that without making time for one another? Sharing life together is not and should never be an obligation-but it most certainly is a blessing and a heavenly joy that should be taken full advantage of rather then taken for granted. I have been molded, matured and grown into the person I am today because of these special relationships and strong community that God has blessed me with and used in countless ways. I have been poured into and over flown by love in friendship. Sometimes I consider myself spoiled by it-as if I’m one of the lucky ones who really knows what it feels like to be surrounded by a faithful and grounded community of friends who feel like family. Friends who have come into my life, left footprints on my heart and made me a part of their storybook called life. Friends who deserve a title so much more than “friends” because they are a community that feels like home. Coming home to them is like coming home. I never thought possible to be cared about and discipled and loved the way that I have been since I’ve come to college.
I admit that my priorities have gotten mixed up. Lord knows I have valued by my actions those things which I believe in my heart are of significantly less importance compared to authentic relationships. Last night it hit me that it makes perfect sense as to why life is simply better lately-it’s because the importance ahs begun to be put back on friendship and community. I thank you God for convicting me and opening my eyes to your truth. To this truth. And I thank you for how you have done so through those who love me-who have noticed me slipping away from community and in a loving way have pulled me back. Through these friends you have showed me my wrongs in a truthful yet graceful manner. Thank you for having them reach out to me, hold me accountable, feed me hard truth and love me through it all. And I thank you for reminding me in countless ways recently, the beauty and necessity and joy that is to be found in community with loved ones. Thank you for reminding me that it is water to my lips and a beating pulse to my heart. I have realized just how much this type of rare love is to be treasured and valued. And I’m still realizing it more and more each day as you show it to me in the smallest, yet most wonderful ways. The joy that my heart finds in it has been awaken. And I never want to lose sight of it again. I want the walls down. I want to be completely free. I want to receive truth and grace and to give both as well. I want to put into practice and live out in my daily life what it is I say I value. What Christ values is what my heart desires too-and I want my life to reflect that.
I am 20 years old and I have been shown love in friendship-authentic community. Something that many people may spend their entire lives searching for. I am blessed. I never knew what I was missing until I was given it. It has been found in this life of mine and I thank God for every piece of it. We were meant to live in community with one another after all. Just like the Trinity: Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Our lives are called to reflect that and I cannot deny that that sort of community is something my heart desires and thirsts for. If our lives are made to reflect the Lords then of course we will desire what he desires: community. I long for it. Thank you God for pulling me back by your power and mercy from where I was losing sight of this truth. Thank you for loving me enough that you would surround me with true community-that I may see your love for me reflected in their lives and the ways they love me. I am overwhelmed by your love for me. I look around at these friendships that have become family-these real pieces of relationship-and I am overwhelmed by your presence here with me. I’m caught up in your goodness and completely aware of your beauty. I am left in wonder and awe at how much you love me. Or at least I’m getting a much better picture of it. That is enough to stop me in my tracks and leave me speechless as I fall down on my knees, wrapped up in your love. I have felt your touch as you have touched me through the lives of others. This is the power of the Holy Spirit that cannot be properly explained in words but simply felt in the quenching joy of our hearts. My life is being changed by community. My life has been changed by your love. Community and true love in friendship-it’s a gift from you and its your Holy Spirit completely present-as we love one another and share life together. It’s Christ Jesus loving us through one another. So dear friend, if I can feel you loving me then I can rest assured that it is the Holy Spirit in you, God working through you to show me his love. And then I have no doubt that I’m feeling him and his love for me. God is present and that in itself is a heavenly present.
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