The Challenge and Blessing of Community
"Celebrating [God] by loving my imperfect child who made an inconvenient mistake was just as important as celebrating Him with my words and songs about grace at church."
I am, by nature, so many things. I inherited my father’s more serious disposition, which can incline me towards negativity and an overcritical spirit. I am a perfectionist, which makes my need for plans and control stronger than I would like to admit. I am an introvert, though friends who know me well would say I’m a social introvert. I do genuinely enjoy getting to know people, but the introversion means I am drained by a lot of social stimulation and need time alone in order to recharge. It means that it takes a lot of unnatural, intentional choices for me to enter into social situations to build relationships.
This is why I need Christ, deep relationships, and community. Left to my own devices, I would build my world around myself as I pleased, only to be left empty-handed. I would laugh little, think too much, and never experience the life-changing, worship-inspiring wonder of receiving and giving self-sacrificial love.
This morning, as our family prepared ourselves to head out for Easter service, my sweet 20-month old toddler found me putting on makeup in the bathroom, my thankfully-lukewarm coffee cup on the countertop just within her reach. I heard her precious little voice repeat the word, “Coffee, coffee, coffee!” and before my mind could process what that might mean, I saw her swinging the cup back and forth as she came teetering towards me, trying to sweetly hand me my coffee. It swooshed and splattered all over the bathroom floor, mercifully missing our clothes and the nearby carpet by millimeters. It was all I could do to just firmly call out her name a few times, otherwise speechless at what had just happened. She stopped mid-swing and stared at me, and at the floor. Her eyes asked me, “Is there grace for me? Am I still loved and accepted, Mama?” By nature, the perfectionist in me was flustered. The spilled coffee was killing the perfectionist in me, and that’s what I needed. I needed to remember that we were preparing to celebrate a Risen Savior who has taken all my imperfections and intentional wrongdoing. Celebrating Him by loving my imperfect child who made an inconvenient mistake was just as important as celebrating Him with my words and songs about grace at church.
In preparing for Easter service, the introvert in me had to summon extra energy to attend an extra-crowded service, trying to prepare my heart to worship, post-coffee spill, and also focus my attention on the ongoing needs of my toddler and my visiting parents who have yet to experience the love of Christ. By nature, the introvert in me was inclined to stay home in a mellow, solitary environment. But oh how good it was for my soul to come into a community of worshippers celebrating the Risen Christ! As Pastor Brian preached a few weeks ago, we need each other in these worship services to remind us how worthy He is! Seeing my brothers and sisters stand before the King, lifting up their hands in deep thanksgiving and praise, lifted my eyes off of my own flustered emotions and reminded me that yes, He is worthy, so worship Him! My heart was grateful for the witness of worship to my parents in this community. All of us together, we love our Risen Saviour and we are proclaiming in our worship to my parents and other visitors that He is good and He is alive and oh how He loves us!
Psalm 95 is a call to a community to come and worship Him together:
I am learning through the honest inconveniences of close relationships and the challenges of community for us introverted types that community is just what we need in learning to love Christ and become more like Him. My heart is learning to echo and embrace the Psalmist’s invitation more and more, because this is how Christ increases and we decrease…and this is how we find true life. Come, let us worship and bow down, let us kneel before the Lord our Maker. For He is our God, and we are the people of His pasture and the sheep of His hand.
I am, by nature, so many things. I inherited my father’s more serious disposition, which can incline me towards negativity and an overcritical spirit. I am a perfectionist, which makes my need for plans and control stronger than I would like to admit. I am an introvert, though friends who know me well would say I’m a social introvert. I do genuinely enjoy getting to know people, but the introversion means I am drained by a lot of social stimulation and need time alone in order to recharge. It means that it takes a lot of unnatural, intentional choices for me to enter into social situations to build relationships.
This is why I need Christ, deep relationships, and community. Left to my own devices, I would build my world around myself as I pleased, only to be left empty-handed. I would laugh little, think too much, and never experience the life-changing, worship-inspiring wonder of receiving and giving self-sacrificial love.
This morning, as our family prepared ourselves to head out for Easter service, my sweet 20-month old toddler found me putting on makeup in the bathroom, my thankfully-lukewarm coffee cup on the countertop just within her reach. I heard her precious little voice repeat the word, “Coffee, coffee, coffee!” and before my mind could process what that might mean, I saw her swinging the cup back and forth as she came teetering towards me, trying to sweetly hand me my coffee. It swooshed and splattered all over the bathroom floor, mercifully missing our clothes and the nearby carpet by millimeters. It was all I could do to just firmly call out her name a few times, otherwise speechless at what had just happened. She stopped mid-swing and stared at me, and at the floor. Her eyes asked me, “Is there grace for me? Am I still loved and accepted, Mama?” By nature, the perfectionist in me was flustered. The spilled coffee was killing the perfectionist in me, and that’s what I needed. I needed to remember that we were preparing to celebrate a Risen Savior who has taken all my imperfections and intentional wrongdoing. Celebrating Him by loving my imperfect child who made an inconvenient mistake was just as important as celebrating Him with my words and songs about grace at church.
In preparing for Easter service, the introvert in me had to summon extra energy to attend an extra-crowded service, trying to prepare my heart to worship, post-coffee spill, and also focus my attention on the ongoing needs of my toddler and my visiting parents who have yet to experience the love of Christ. By nature, the introvert in me was inclined to stay home in a mellow, solitary environment. But oh how good it was for my soul to come into a community of worshippers celebrating the Risen Christ! As Pastor Brian preached a few weeks ago, we need each other in these worship services to remind us how worthy He is! Seeing my brothers and sisters stand before the King, lifting up their hands in deep thanksgiving and praise, lifted my eyes off of my own flustered emotions and reminded me that yes, He is worthy, so worship Him! My heart was grateful for the witness of worship to my parents in this community. All of us together, we love our Risen Saviour and we are proclaiming in our worship to my parents and other visitors that He is good and He is alive and oh how He loves us!
Psalm 95 is a call to a community to come and worship Him together:
"O come, let us sing for joy to the Lord, let us shout joyfully to the rock of our salvation. Let us come before His presence with thanksgiving, let us shout joyfully to Him with psalms. For the Lord is a great God and a great King above all gods… Come, let us worship and bow down, let us kneel before the Lord our Maker. For He is our God, and we are the people of His pasture and the sheep of His hand. Today, if you would hear His voice, do not harden your hearts." vs. 1-3, 6-8a
I am learning through the honest inconveniences of close relationships and the challenges of community for us introverted types that community is just what we need in learning to love Christ and become more like Him. My heart is learning to echo and embrace the Psalmist’s invitation more and more, because this is how Christ increases and we decrease…and this is how we find true life. Come, let us worship and bow down, let us kneel before the Lord our Maker. For He is our God, and we are the people of His pasture and the sheep of His hand.
