Gather Together

Life Groups, Small Groups, Home Groups, Fellowship Groups.

These are all nice little catch phrases for a simple but a necessary community in my Christian faith.  It all came to a head when I was off on a little "spiritual retreat" last month.  I enjoyed the non-cooking, non-cleaning, non-demanding schedule of errands and parenting.  It was just James and I in a small but quaint cabin while he went off teaching.  I spent the majority of the day listening to music, praying silently, times of confession, digging into God's Word, journaling and other spiritual disciplines.  I took a break to do some winter trail running.  Practically perfect in EVERY WAY!

Well, it is easy to live the Christian life in a cabin in the woods.  But, reality hit like a cast iron pan when I came home.  My wonderful little blessings can drive me straight to MY HEAVENLY Father's feet.  I need Him and His strength to deal with the not so nice areas in my life.

blessed are the feet of those who bring GOOD NEWS

Our Life Group is a fun but probing group that challenges me in my Island thinking.  God knew we needed one another. Often I am left with spiritual food I hadn't thought of before.  Thankfully, we all come from different backgrounds and it is a blessing.  I had to snap a photo of the wonderful believers in Christ God has allowed to surround me.

My Challenge to you, if you are not in a group of believers GET IN ONE!

Friends

It comes to the time to begin.  Life has been one of those rollercoasters.  I have been on one, trials and everything come and go.  But, lately I have been pondering about Friendship.  I was asked about friendship.  About once a month, I question relationships in general.  Not blaming hormones, but I tend to be a bit sensitive.  Sometimes even though I have a bushel of wonderful people in my life-I feel friendless.  

Probing more into my heart, I can see why I feel that.  I value truth!  And a good friend (in my humble opinion) doesn't just live life with me, but knows me.  A true friend can call me to live selflessly and more like Christ.  Words of truth spoken to me with grace is a true friend.  Under the microscope, I can see that I have been "too busy" to be vulnerable to my friends so that I can keep my "secrets" to myself.  

How about you?  Do you treasure truth-tell friends?  What is your hinderance to deep friends? 

Lord, help me to walk with transparency so that I can have freedom and forever formed into YOUR likeness.