This is Day 31 (!!) of 31 Days of Intentional Community. Thanks for joining me on this journey!
Well, I'm a couple of days behind, but we made it! Blogging about intentional community has been challenging, convicting, and encouraging to me as I worked through these topics and I hope it has inspired you as well. (And this coming week, I plan to go back through and re-read the comments-- thank you to those of you who have responded to my posts!)
God has definitely given me a vision for a life lived intentionally with others, loving them as He has loved me. It's not an easy journey but it is full of His good rewards along the way. There's really so much more I could say on this topic and I think that's a good thing.
I plan to continue to explore the theme of community here on Gidget Goes Home (although not every day) along with bringing back more of the creativity, contentment and just plain ol' living life that normally abides here on this blog (including sharing with you all the good books I've been reading).
But I do have a few more thoughts to share before I truly embrace November.
God is... community
I really feel that part of why God calls us to live life in community rather than in isolation because it reflects His character. He is, after all, made up of three persons.
We can't fulfill the Great Commission or the Greatest Commandment without doing life with other people. And we do need to check our heart's motives. Because we could probably attempt going about those things begrudgingly, but the Lord wants us to do it joyfully, to be a joyful giver of our time, resources, love-- ourselves.
Christ is our common ground
Yesterday I talked about working together with those who have a common passion or calling or interests. But the truth is, we have something in common with all believers: Christ Himself.
We often joke in my church-- in our community group and in leadership-- that we certainly wouldn't have picked out some of the people in our lives to be our friends.
We might have next-to-nothing in common with them, but because Christ is our common ground we have forged profound relationships. He is the bond that holds these friendships together, whether these friends share my affinity for baseball, the beach, blogging-- or nothing really at all.
Of course we can still relish in those kindred spirit relationships, because they are a great gift indeed. But let's not overlook a budding friendship just because we don't seem to connect on the surface. Dive down deep and see how iron sharpens iron in unexpected ways and you might just discover you're more alike than you thought.
One of my dearest friends is a video-game-playing self-professed nerd. We actually do have a variety of (other) common interests, but we bonded over the gospel and a commitment to community, and all the rest fell into place later to create a wonderful friendship, where we can be real with and minister to each other.
I can't wait to see who the Lord is going to bring my way in the future, and I pray that I may be open to being authentic and not afraid to welcome those new faces into the community where I find myself.
If you've missed any of this series, you can find all the posts on the landing page. Thanks again for joining me in this month-long discussion on intentional community. God is good!