Friday, April 8, 2011

Actually getting there.... Keys to moving forward to the not yet... Part Three: Community

I will not be able to write this one well but Father is pressing and before I have even finished this statement my heart is being twisted and tears are running down my face.... I know that I don't know even the things I don't know and I don't know much... but I do know this... "And though a man might prevail against him who is alone, two will withstand him. A threefold cord is not quickly broken" Ecc. 4:12

I will never forgot the day I truly learned that we are genuinely stronger when we are loved and when we are surrounded by people who see us and love us....I was so much older than I would think one should be in learning this lesson ... but I will never forget sitting in their driveway... surrounded by them and their family...everyone at ease with one another.... laughing ... telling stories... cooking out... I left that house that day and it had finally dawned on me... ah... one is truly stronger when surrounded by love.... one is truly more solid inside when loved and accepted....

I really don't have it in me to make this piece my best... because I am raw in this place... my heart is tender in this place... I have too many questions still floating and landing hard in this place before the Lord in regards to this topic....

I don't mean to diminish anyone or make myself larger.. but in regards to Martin Luther King Jr. dream for racial equality and civil rights .. he had a dream of a day that would hold within it something other than that which he lived in.... my heart pulsates with a dream that sees the world truly knowing that we are Christians because we love.... because we love... that the first adjective that would flow off of anyone's lips when they thought of the type of person that would be a Christian would be love... they might not agree with what one believes but that they would most definitely know that Christians above all else are characterized by love....

I think of the book of Acts and I think of the way it is spoken of how the Christians lived their lives together and I get hungry.... I get hungry for that picture.....

I am stronger when I don't stand alone.... I am more when I am surrounded by others.... The Body of Christ.... the Church... the Bride.... there we are ... when one of us is weakened we are all weakened but when one of us is strong we are all strong....

There is this exercise that I have participated in ... it is done by telling of this story but the real task is to see who can get a ball down a line of people the fastest..... and I have watched groups of people attempt to do it in all ways....

so picture two lines of people trying to get a ball down that line in the fastest way possible...

what would you do?

How would you do it?

Think about it.. how could you the fastest way possible get a ball down the line... now no one in the line can be skipped... the first person can't run back and hand the ball to the person at the end....

Community... relationship... libraries could and are filled with books on the subject..... and I have no answers at this point.. just a head and heart full of questions..... which you know what isn't fun but it is ok..... maybe in the journey of it all we will find the answers together....

I have found it is in the sitting and wondering and in the vulnerability and transparency of the moment with another human being that that which books could never capture is found..... when hearts are shared and walls come down.. and time is made and a people are gathered that changed occurs.... and that there is time and patience and persistence that is needed....

A hunger grows within my being more and more ... to the point that it awakens me and causes me to ache and long for the more.. for the not yet.... but I will stand and be hungry and I will be awoken and ache .... because this ... whatever this will be ... will be worth it...

You see I have a dream.... I have an assurance that one day there will be a Bride and there will be perfect unity but I along side that assurance I do believe that way before that happens there will be a people... a community that was hungry enough to venture out and try ... to venture out and see ... to step away from safe and engage in a dialogue of sorts that involves the puzzle of finding out what living this life together is truly about... I have a dream... a dream that I do believe my Father is making into a reality....

Oh... yes... the activity... what is the fastest way to get the ball from the first person to the last.... it is by all in the line to hold hands... when one is weak we are all weak.. when one is strong we are all strong.. when one is holding the ball then we are all holding the ball..... we are more together than we are apart... what that will look like I have no idea... but here is to walking out the dream......

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