Community

I have been reading about community in the book Compassion by Henri Nouwen. It's been REALLY good and made me think a lot. First of all, it's made me think about how often we are bombarded with human suffering and how that leads to numbness. We can't as humans possibly care about EVERY problem and be compassionate because we constantly see suffering. It's revealed in television shows, on the news, and in movies. We hear about it and see it everywhere. How can we constantly care? Decreasing the amount of media one takes in would be helpful in decreased feelings of apathy. This has really made me think about how much media I want in my future and how much media I want my children to experience. I don't want them to be naive or extremely sheltered, but I want them to have compassion. 

Also, I read a part that talked about how important community is. It is pivotal and can also be different than what people picture when they think of community. Many people think you have to live with others to have community, but that is not always true. You can have community by having a deep knowledge that specific people care about you, want you in their lives, and are praying for you constantly. This makes me want to talk to my friends and be intentional about constantly praying for one another. This is important because having a strong community leads to compassion, which will benefit God's kingdom tremendously. Also, writing letters was talked about and this sparked a thought that we should write letters to each other. Giving updates, prayer requests, and joys and thankfulness to God and each other. We can't all be together this summer, but we can support each other and continue to have a community we know is supporting us and praying for us. 

Thank you, Lord, for where you have me

Sometimes we tend to forget thankfulness when it comes to the small things. We are always striving for more. What BIG lessons are we going to learn? Well, maybe there are small lessons and maybe we should be thankful for those. I've been slowly making my way through Bonhoeffer's Life Together and he talks about being thankful for the small things. A point he brings up is that if we cannot accept the small things God provides, why would he trust us to accept the big things? He hones in on community specifically, and states, "If we do not give thanks daily for the Christian fellowship in which we have been placed, even where there is not great experience, no discoverable riches, but much weakness, small faith, and difficulty" and if we "keep complaining to God that everything is so paltry and petty, so far from what we expected, then we hinder God from letting our fellowship grow according to the measure and riches which are there for us all in Jesus Christ". This makes me eager to pray more often for the Christian fellowship I am in both at school and at home. When first reading this, I was specifically thinking about my community at school, but I am HOME right now. I need to be where I'm at and remember to pray for my community here along with my community at school, so that we can continue to grow in all that the Lord has for us through Jesus.