Fellowship

So earlier tonight I met up with my Bible study group, Momentum Ministries, in the Student Center after my English class. We were talking about community, one of my personal favorite subjects to talk about since community is awesome. During the discussion, I was reminded of a few things I hadn't really thought of.

As we talked, I found times to express my thoughts. The question was, "What is required to build a good community?" After someone brought up that we should have the desire to help our brothers and sisters when we can, I spoke up with my thought.

I think the desire to help others is an awesome thing. I really do. But I also believe that, conversely, we should have a desire to be helped.

Don Miller put it really well in his book Blue Like Jazz. He said that he used to pray a lot for his friends but never for himself because he felt that it was selfless. Unfortunately, I don't have my copy of the book with me (I think I lent it to my uncle) so I can't remember how, but Miller came to realize that such a thing wasn't selfless; it was prideful. He was basically going with the old "I can do it myself" mentality, but that's obviously not a good mentality to have.

In my opinion, the same thing applies to our circle of friends. It is so essential not to isolate ourselves in our own little world. God made us to be with people; it's all over the Bible.

Back during Winter Quarter of 2008, I remember hanging with Ty and Joey and various others after my classes. We'd usually go out to eat. One of our most frequent dining places was King's Wok Buffet in Silverdale. Those were some of the best times of winter. Before that there was the Winter Conference. Joey, Sedy, Andrew and I all shared a room and got to know each other a lot better through the nights we spent talking and praying about a bunch of things. It was awesome.

Coming back to the discussion, we continued talking about community and I, thinking about winter of 2008, brought up that community doesn't necessarily have to be Bible studies and prayer meetings. Not to say those aren't really great; they just aren't the only thing. I was just hanging out with my friends (who were all fellow believers) and I felt this strong sense of fellowship and genuine caring for one another. It's what I loved about winter.

Just to sort of add to that, the spring afterwards sucked. I was taking online classes and I was laid off from my job. So I didn't see a lot of my friends. Sometimes, but not much. I felt alone and it was kind of frightening really.

That's not to say that I can't handle myself alone. I do a lot of things by myself. After work I go to school and go to classes with a completely different group of people, most of whom I will probably never see outside that classroom. So, in essence, I'm still by myself.

But what was this realization I had? I mentioned being reminded of something involving community. Well, I realized during the discussion that I was being prideful. I was always there to help my friends when they needed it; Andrew asked me to be his prayer partner over the summer and I said "Absolutely;" Joey asked me to come to his house a couple weekends from now to help him and a group of other guys with manual labor work; other friends come to me with their problems. But rarely do I ever talk to them about my own issues. I act as if none of them would want to be bothered by my problems but I know that's not necessarily true.

It was just interesting. I love constant reminders of things I've learned. Goodness knows I need them as I'm obviously a forgetful person. It's easy to get distracted in this world. But I need to remember to be distracted by God and His ways.

That is all. Have a good night, everyone!