Community

Community – a unified body of individuals (Merriam-Webster Dictionary)

It’s been about five weeks that I’ve been here in Denver now, and I know that one of the most impactful things that is really really sticking to me, is community.  For multiple reasons, some of the ‘communities’ I have been a part of before seem to fit and not fit this definition at the exact same time. Every one of them is united by some kind of purpose.  It seems like oftentimes though, outside of that one purpose, some people could care less to do with some others.  And in seeing and understanding how much goes on in our city, state, country, and world today, that’s understandable.  So on that, I have come to the point of seeing that not everything can be united in community, necessarily all the time.  (And I also realize that not everyone may consider many things to be a community so then there is no need to care or address that.)

The Christian community that I’ve been blessed to be a part of out here has been eye-opening.  Here at Providence, community is talked about a lot.  There are even things that they have called community groups and basement groups, which meet on other days outside of Sunday church just to fellowship, love each other, and read/discuss God’s Word while finding ways to be there and challenge each other along the way. A phrase that one of my professors uses to describe some churches many times is “us 4, no more, and shut the door.” (or something along those lines). The basic point of that statement, however it is correctly phrased, is that many times, it seems like church has now become this thing that can only be done inside of four walls of a church building on Sunday.  Here, in Colorado, I’ve been blessed to see how it shows through the people that living here in community with other Christians and living and interacting with the neighbors around them is a part of life.  It won’t always be easy, our intern group can attest to how it can become messy at times, but looking back and seeing how we grew from that and different scenarios, that messiness is what has made us better as a team and closer as friends. 

From these past couple of weeks, we’ve been able to experience the awesomeness of community and how it can suck at times, but then the beauty of it all is when we struggle together and ultimately grow from that.  Our group, this church, and all of us as a body, are far from understanding everything and how things should be done.  Many mistakes can and def will continue to be made, but that’s all apart of how you grow. 

I’m learning so much here that it’s becoming hard to get all my thoughts placed. :/ (weird that that’s so good and semi bad at the same time)  What I do know though is that I have been a part of a family here that I haven’t experienced before, and have been apart of something that cant be paralleled to anything from my past.  I need prayer that all that comes from this will continue to change me and that I’ll (along with Jill and Mike) come back to Cedarville and maybe even Akron with something that will impact and, who knows, possibly even teach others.  It’s funny, I’ve heard so many stories about people coming out to Colorado to visit or whatnot and then eventually staying here for good.  Gosh, there is obviously something in store for me elsewhere, cause I’d so like to stay, but I know I’ve got two more years of college ahead of me.  I want to dive into things now, but I know I’ve still got much to learn. Lets see where this goes.

Thanks so much to all of you who have supported me financially and prayerfully.  It’s so greatly appreciated and I wish I could do better at showing you all the crazy, amazing things that have been going on here.