One Body

The past two weeks have been a whirlwind of emotion for me and the people that I am surrounded with. Shock, sadness, heartache and confusion are just a few of the many emotions that engulfed our hearts as we learned of the sad news of the passing of our friend, Julia. Though we still ache to have conversations and spend time with her, we have found peace in the fact that she is in heaven with her Jesus. This has been a challenging two weeks for all of us, and I speak for most of my friends when I say that without the love and support of each other we probably would've had a much harder time than we've had. There's a word for this love and support that we find within the people around us- and that word is community. Community is a basic concept yet it means something a little different to everyone. My favorite definition of community is simply put: a unified body of individuals. 

As the reality of this tragedy that we experienced set in hard- one thing became very apparent. We really are created for community. Scripture proves that in one of my favorite verses in the bible. Hebrews 10:24-25 sums up the concept of community beautifully- "And let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds, not giving up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but encouraging one another—and all the more as you see the Day approaching." I love the way The Message (a contemporary translation of the Bible) interprets the same verse as above by saying- "Let’s see how inventive we can be in encouraging love and helping out, not avoiding worshiping together as some do but spurring each other on, especially as we see the big Day approaching." How cool is that? Jesus wants us to have friends. He wants us to do life with the people around us. He wants us to encourage one another, meet together, worship together, laugh together and even cry together. Because lets be honest- doing those things alone just isn't that much fun.

This is what my community looks like! 

The community I have found in Milledgeville this past year has been unreal. I have found a group of people who love Jesus and each other, which is the perfect combination for intentional friendships and the community that we were created for. This year I have felt loved, appreciated and encouraged by people that I am proud to call my community. The past two weeks I watched in awe as my Young Life community of forty or so college kids (and countless people not involved in YL) stepped up in prayer and support to lift up Julia and her family. I heard the word "community" thrown around many times throughout the past two weeks, but I got a real picture of it last Monday night; as my friends were continuing to trickle back into Milledgeville to be together after we heard Julia had passed. We gathered at our fearless area director Phil's house for a meal provided by our wonderful YL committee members, who filled our stomachs with barbecue and the best strawberries I've ever tasted. But it was about much more than the food that night- as my eyes scanned the room, I couldn't help but smile as I saw pockets of joy shine through the darkness that hung over the room. I heard laughter as I watched people engage in conversations that revolved around Julia's life. I saw smiles overcome the exhaustion that many of us had been battling for many days. Isn't it great how light always shines through in the darkness? 

As the night went on I continued to watch the people around me and I began to feel more at peace with what we were all going through- because the bottom line was that none of us were going through it alone. Because we are a a unified body of individuals, one body in Christ,  a community, and that means that we hurt for each other and we rejoice for each other. It means that we spur each other on and hold each other accountable. It means that we do life together, every single day. There is just something truly special about this kind of community, and I love every minute of it. 

We have Jesus and we have each other- I'll rejoice in that!