Your People // Let’s All Be Brave
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I’ve always been a big fan of community. Blame it on me being from a family of five, where there’s never been much of what you call “alone time”. Or blame it on the fact that it takes the pressure off my little introverted self, in not having to carry a conversation myself; giving me the freedom to sit back and watch if I wish.
The importance of community has been revealed time and again in my life, especially recently. When I faced losing my job just over two months ago, it was my church community and family that were able to keep me going through their continued prayers, as it was a time that I felt as though I could not pray myself.
When Staci approached me with the concept of leading a book study, all I desired and prayed for was the community in which would be built through the participants. And over the past weeks God has shown that community is what HE has desired as well.
If I really stop to think about it, Christian community is what makes me feel most alive. It is what allowed me to step into a living faith during my first experience at church camp at the age of twelve, and it was what allowed my faith to keep growing to the point of a surrendered heart when I was sixteen. It is what draws me closer to Christ each time. And gives me courage to strive towards becoming more Christlike. It is by Christian community that I find strength, am refreshed, and encouraged to overcome the dark days of doubt.
“I want to live brave. So I pursue opportunities and look for God’s open doors, but I only can because I have people who love me and with whom I belong.”
We were made for community. How could we not be? God, Himself, is community. The trinity, three in one.
On the sixth day, Genesis 1:24 says, “Let us make man in our image, after ourlikeness.” And then on the seventh day, after man was provided the privilege to name all of the creatures of the earth, sea, and sky, and still no suitable helperwas found for him, God decided to form woman from his rib.
Ecclesiastes 4:9-12 (NLT) says,Two people are better off than one, for they can help each other succeed. If one person falls, the other can reach out and help. But someone who falls alone is in real trouble. Likewise, two people lying close together can keep each other warm. But how can one be warm alone? A person standing alone can be attacked and defeated, but two can stand back-to-back and conquer. Three are even better, for a triple-braided cord is not easily broken.
It’s not by standing alone that we are able to accomplish Christ’s mission for our lives. It is by standing together, in oneness, just like the early church in the book of Acts; supporting and providing for one another, that we are able to accept the call to go forth and make disciples, utilizing the gifts that the Lord has provided us.It is a life lived among “your people” that you can be brave.
“No one is brave alone. Every superhero has someone they come home to; every Bible character has someone they depend on. Jesus had his disciples and his family. Batman had Robin. Paul had Barnabas. Ruth had Naomi. The Incredibles had each other; Superman had Lois Lane. Moses had Aaron, Hur, and Miriam. Noah had his family. So we see modeled, even in the Bible, the truth that the bravest among us do not stand alone.”
