Community...

COMMUNITY – What does community mean to you? What do you need from community? What can you give to community?

 I have spent a great deal of struggling with this idea.  And yet in these past few weeks I have a greater understanding of what community can be.  You see, community is a group of people who care about you and are willing to listen.  And in belonging to the community, you can also reach out and listen.  Funny is that the most simple thing I have found that I have needed to be given by community is the reminder of where our focus needs to be.

I have spent much of my life caught in a cycle of pain, and the smallest act of remembering that I am a child of God.  And that memory drives me nuts...  always trying to remember this is hard.  Yet in these past months since I have joined the Proverbs 31 On-line Bible Studies...  I have found a community of women that love me despite me...  And are willing to walk beside me from where they sit.  And are also willing to share their walk with me.

The most exciting thing about it... is that I can listen to others, pray for others, and so many other things.  And with each small step... I feel I belong somewhere.

And yet it is also a journey.  Each one step that I take, allows me to learn to take some small risks.  And have also felt more secure in letting my church into my world, and not just my pastor.