We are called to live in Community

I have come to realize over the past few months that God can use every situation to bring Him glory. I knew that but God has a way of reminding you when you need Him most. When my best friend, housemate and sister in Christ, Maggie was moving away for six months for work, I was excited and happy for her, but I was sad too. I had just gotten comfortable in our routine of always seeing each other, hanging out together with our friends, cooking together, going to church together. So I looked at the six months that lay ahead as a road of loneliness. I had fought with loneliness before I met Jesus, so I knew that road. I didn't want to take it.

But as January rolled around that's what I did. I ended up traveling so much for work in February and March that I rarely was in town to attend church and fellowship with my Millcreek Community Church (MCC) family. But I was definitely enjoying myself on my work adventures! I went to Chicago, New York, Georgia and Ohio. It was a blast traveling with co-workers, expanding my business acumen in training events, and meeting new people in the company. Though in March I began to feel a bit drained. I realized I had my priorities in the wrong order. I was putting my career in front of God. No wonder I felt so lonely amongst a group of people!  I was filing the emptiness of missing Maggie with the busyness of life.

God used and is using my time apart from Maggie to teach me to find my security and significance in Him. I can enjoy the quiet times in my apartment and listen to Him but that I also have a lovely family at MCC through which God is constantly working. A fellowship of believers that is there to support, encourage, and challenge me.

At MCC's Young Adult ministry in April Pastor Todd Cyphers spoke about the necessity of community with a group of believers. In John 3:12-15 (written below) Jesus gave us the perfect example of what it means to live in community. We are called to server our fellow brothers and sisters in Christ, as Jesus shows in the example of washing the feet of His disciples. This also means that we are to accept when our brothers and sisters serve us. For me that meant, it was okay to reach out to my sisters and ask to spend an afternoon together. We are to live life together, the good times and the bad. As I mentioned in my previous post, prayer is a powerful tool and combine that with community and wow. It is a wonderful experience to ask a fellow believer to pray for you - and see the fruit of God.

John 3:12-15 (HCSB)

12 When Jesus had washed their feet and put on His robe, He reclined again and said to them, “Do you know what I have done for you? 13 You call Me Teacher and Lord. This is well said, for I am. 14 So if I, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another’s feet. 15 For I have given you an example that you also should do just as I have done for you. 16 “I assure you: A slave is not greater than his master, and a messenger is not greater than the one who sent him. 17 If you know these things, you are blessed if you do them.