Community is Coming

I think it is safe to say no one has experienced what the last month and a half has brought. For some, quarantine has drastically changed your life. For others, being forced to slow down and stay home is what you have always dreamed of. Most of the rest of us are somewhere in the middle of these.

Brock started working from home March 16th. The quietest room in our house also happens to be our bathroom. We took up a small folding table (which happened to be our dining room table at our rental house) and voila, between the sink and the toilet overlooking our tree line sits Brock’s office now. He truly is a simple man and I love him for it. Brock and the team now record worship and his message on Wednesdays to a video camera and we as a family sit in the living room on Sunday mornings going to church together for the first time ever.

For the kids and I the only thing that has changed is less of being with people. No more meeting with friends, no more play dates, no more face to face Bible studies. Everyday when Casen would wake up he would normally ask, “Who’s coming today and who’s coming tonight?” It was a more drastic change on all of us than I imagined, seeing as he continued to ask that question for the first few weeks of quarantine. I’m thankful it is starting to become warmer, we are all better with the sunshine on our skin!

Brock and I both agree, our biggest change has been trying to shift all of our normal life over to a screen. I’m sure all of you can relate to that in some regard. Maybe Zoom has become your new work normal or you are FaceTiming grandma and grandpa so they can see the kids. I think it is safe to say, it’s just not the same.

We were not designed to be in relationships behind a screen. Let alone in quarantine.

We were designed for community, doing life side by side, face to face.

I see the good in technology during this time. The ability to FaceTime, call, keep up to date on social media, zoom calls, and streaming Sunday services. I’m thankful for how God has designed an ability for us to stay connected in these days. But I also think of how Paul wrote in many of his letters his longing to be with the people he was writing to. Romans 1:11, “For I long to see you, that I may impart to you some spiritual gift to strengthen you- that is, that we may be mutually encouraged by each other’s faith, both yours and mine.” 1 Corinthians 16:7, “For I do not want to see you now just in passing. I hope to spend some time with you, if the Lord permits.” Philippians 1:8, “For God is my witness, how I yearn for you all with affection of Christ Jesus.”

Paul knew the blessing of community. He had experienced and lived it. The love that Christ had bestowed on Paul was the same love poured out of Paul for the followers of Jesus…no matter where they were. In Christ, we have that same love in each of us. We are all in different places during this stay at home order. God was not surprised by this and we believe in his sovereignty. His spirit is so intentional to pull out exactly what He intended for every single one of us as we walk through this.

Isn’t that incredible? Think of all the believers in the world and the Spirit of the living God can draw out every single one of our hearts and work in thousands of different ways at the very same time. A common theme I saw through this was that relationships matter more. Look at how the Lord stripped away all the extras. No school, sports, no going to work or eating at restaurants, no extra curricular activities, budgets were cut and the list goes on. He left us with those around us, to get back to what is important.

Our mission is actually very simple, we are called to make disciples. Are we doing that in our own home? It’s an opportunity to reevaluate that and then as a family unit, be on mission as you go out to all of those “extras” (if you choose to) as they reopen. Because community is comin ya’ll, we are not staying quarantined forever and we have an opportunity to revise where needed but restart the way we were interacting before all of this.

Romans 15:4-7, “For whatever was written in former days was written for our instruction, that through endurance and through the encouragement of the Scriptures we might have hope. May the God of endurance and encouragement grant you to live in such harmony with one another, in accord with Christ Jesus, that together you may with one voice glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. Therefore welcome one another as Christ has welcomed you, for the glory of God.”

So what is God teaching you through this? I pray that we all would have the endurance and encouragement to get through these last days of quarantine. That this time would refresh our minds for the importance and necessity of community and knowing the true blessing of being with one another. “Love one another as I have loved you.” Discipleship and the one-another’s of scripture can be tiring at times and not always easy, but isn’t there such a reward in your heart knowing it’s not done in your own strength but through the spirit working through you? It’s a sanctifying work that allows us to see more of Jesus working in us.

Ephesians 4:15-16, “Rather, speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in every way into him who is the head into Christ, from whom the whole body, joined and held together by every joint with which it is equipped, when each part is working properly, makes the body grow so that is builds itself up in love.”

The seats are going to be filled again soon when the church gathers together corporately all around the world in buildings, homes, and fields. And all together, with one voice we will get to sing praises to God and worship the Father in one accord. What a day of rejoicing that will be! But it’s not about where you meet, it’s about who you are with, so that together we can look more like Jesus and build one another up in love. Get ready, it’s coming. How will you reengage?