No, this is not about the hit sit-com. This is about hanging out with other Jesus loving folks.
As you may have noticed, it has been a while since my last post, I have a summer job as a camp counselor at a Christian camp which a 24/5 job (aka Monday afternoon to Saturday morning) so posts will be far less frequent for the next couple months. Sorry about that....
Anyways, just from being here and being with the rest of team and after seeing again the community that the campers also form with each other, I figured I would address the importance of being in community with other people who also love our Lord. You may think, well as long as I believe in Jesus, it doesn't really matter if I have a community or not. Salvation isn't dependent on whether we are in community or not, but it makes the journey and the process of salvation a LOT easier.
What is the point of this community? What does community mean? Well the Christian definition of community I think can be most closely defined as the church. And if that is still foreign to you, or your only view of the church is just a big building you go to on Sunday mornings, another way to put it is, the group of people that you surround yourself with in worship and accountability and to just be a Christian influence with each other.
The biggest example of this, which is something everyone deals with, not just Christians, is the need to have someone there for you when going through hard times in life. We need to have people we can talk to and to encourage us and help us get back on our feet. It goes the other way too. We are built to love. God made us out of love and we were created to love him and love others. How can we love others if the "others" are not around. Our soul needs to have other people around so that we can give that love, encouragement, and support out to others or else we are left longing for something to help and love. I have experienced this firsthand this past week. I dealt with a lot of issues in some campers that I have seen before in other campers, but only like one or two a week. This week, I had at least one different camper a night on my bed crying with me. That is only counting the ones in my cabin at night, not the ones in small group or just around during other camp activities. It really took a toll on me and my spirit is pretty drained after this week. However, the community of Christian friends I have around me here at camp on team with me really picked me up and although I experienced so much brokenness in such great kids, through team and a few of the other campers, I still was able to see the AWESOME things God is still doing in each and everyone of his children. Only through being in a community was I able to see that despite the brokenness, there is still hope. Without this fellowship around me, I would be feeling rather hopeless today because of all the brokenness I experienced. God is good though and continues to show me that.
Accountability is another big one in community. We need to hold each other accountable and make sure that our brothers and sisters are leading a Christ-like life. We are not being very Christ-like if we are not holding them accountable and making sure that they are being faithful and allowing them to be lead astray. This life we live in Christ is not one of looking out for "number 1", but rather one where we strive to all be one with the Creator. The ultimate goal is not to just be you and God chilling in Heaven for eternity, but for ALL of creation to be united with him forever. We need to therefore make sure we are holding each others hands through the process to do our best to make sure that we fulfill that goal of uniting the whole creation in his kingdom. Accountability is tough because it sucks to have to "call out" your friends, but it is something that we must do as brothers and sisters in Christ. We have to continually point each other to the cross and remind each other of who we are striving to be with and who we want to be like. I know that for me at least, I need daily reminders of who I want to be like. Jesus is our role model, and its good to be reminded of that.
This post was kind of random and disorganized and scatter brained, but I am so tired, that is just how I am right now. I hope that some of this made sense and that God spoke through me rather than me just being dumb. Hopefully, God spoke to you in some way here. If not, ignore it and wait and see if the next one has more of an impact. I pray for you all that my words don't distract you from the King, but rather he is using me to reach out to you.
"Bear one another's burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ." -Galatians 6:2
