I Found It...

... Or, it found me.

I know that I have said this to most of you, but this semester has been crazy. All in good ways, but crazy nonetheless. I realized today how very rarely we really take advantage of the community around us. I'll give you a few examples.

Take my bible study, for one. We were a group of five wall workers, meeting in my living room every week because we all "coincidentally" ended up there one night and decided to continue meeting. We had all been praying for community. And what did we all find? Community.

Take my friend Kaitlyn, for two. She came down to Murfreesboro today to have dinner with me and give me a bit of a break from the same 22 people I've been with for the last 72 hours. I have known her for two years, but never had a real conversation with her until a few days ago. I've been missing out. She's awesome.

The thing is, I have known all of these girls (except one) since I came to Belmont two years ago. And I spent a lot of the last two years praying for some women to learn and grow with. What I didn't realize is that that community was already there, I just needed to chase it.

And most of them? They had been praying for community too. And I know that they were like me and thinking that they just hadn't met the right women for that awesome kind of community God promised them. Ah, not true.

There we all were, sitting alone in our houses, praying for community, praying for some kind of magic to happen to make relationships appear and work. And the first time we ventured out of our lonely shells and met together and talked, and the first time we prayed together? Community formed. Who knew?

We knew each other all along. We just weren't investing in each other. Community doesn't happen over small talk at work and school. It can start there. But it isn't nurtured there. It is nurtured over cups of coffee, walks in the park, lunch, dinner, bible studies, mugs of tea on the front porch... It doesn't really matter what you do. It's the intentionality of inviting someone to sit and chat with you. That's where community comes from.

The common phrase from me and my friends lately has been, "why is it that we are just now hanging out?" and "why did it take me this long to figure out how cool you are?" Because we are all just discovering just how much community the Lord has surrounded us with, and how much we failed to take advantage of it. And I think there is incredible purpose in that.

I feel incredibly blessed to have found these relationships at all. And I'm even glad that I have to say goodbye to these new friendships for a while, because God has taught me so much about chasing people through that. It takes a long time and sometimes it sucks, but God has already placed good people in your life. You just have to hunt them down. And, you'll get to chase after some people sorely in need of love in the process :)

So, we are all heading our separate ways in what seems to be very poor timing. We all just found the community we have been longing for... Why would God give that to us, just to take it away again? Ah, because he is smarter than we are. He gave us a taste of true community, true relationships, and taught us how to find them. How to chase them. How to foster them. And now, he is sending us all over the world (literally) because we know what we are chasing and how to chase it.

I never really thought that community would just find me. But I also had no idea how to go about finding it myself. And I certainly had no idea that I have been sitting on a gold mine of people for the last two years.... These are the kinds of things that I am humbled when I learn, because God tears down my pride and reminds me of the basics. And I tend to think that most people already have this figured out and I'm the only one who is just realizing it... And maybe that's true. But I doubt it.

I am simply grateful to love a God who is patient enough to teach me these kinds of things, and doesn't seem to mind that it takes me upwards of two years to get the message. :)

I will rise and go to Jesus. He will embrace me in his arms. For in the arms of my dear Savior, there are ten thousand charms....