The Blessed Community

 How are you blessed by the community around you?  Have you ever experienced the "Blessed Community" that is mentioned by several Christian authors?  How does the Christian community bless those in proximity?  Do Christians show up as people who bring comfort and joy to a hurting world?  Even to those within the community?

I have expected to find a developing kinship with "known" Christian circles in my life (church, meditative groups, etc), but as my geographic horizons continue to expand, I revel in how God is revealed so quickly by those who know him.  (Emphasis on "know" and not "know about" him.)  This fellowship to which I belong is often revealed in unexpected places, too.

Once when I was with people operating within a meeting of state-wide providers in the alcohol and drug treatment field, I listened to men speak about their work.  "This is God's work, you know," they said.  I smiled to myself.  Later a man, who worked in the prison system helping inmates receive treatment was telling me about his call and mission within his neighborhood church.  How easily these conversations developed!

When I have moved various places around the country, I am surprised by joy at the easy access God's people allow into their hearts and homes.  On one of my first days in California many years ago I had locked myself out of the house during the day.  I went to the mom-next-door at home with six children and asked to use her phone.  (That dates this event - pre-cellphone.)  It did not take five minutes of conversation to reveal we had a common bond in the Lord.  What might have been a five-minute conversation turned into a praise time of half an hour.  What might have seemed like a lonely venture into a faraway land began to feel like home with my brothers and sisters living next door.

I was once sitting in a court room waiting for a judge to pass sentence on my son.  When the judge saw me, he asked my son who I was.  It did not take by two questions on the judge's part fo reveal we had a common bond in the Lord.  The judge sent my son out of the court room and called me to the bench.  We had a lively discussion about seminaries around the state of Ohio (I had gone to one) and both our Christian calling and work.

How did this happen in less than five minutes?  Because God binds people together in unity.  We, as a fellowship, are easily recognizable.  Our love and compassion is front facing.  We are found!  

Being part of the fellowship expands my horizons, gives me comfort and care, and makes it so I really never feel alone.  God is present in these souls and there I get touched.  It makes me crave being present for others, so they never have to feel alone either.  It is an amazing part of the blessed, abundant life.  Sometimes I am overwhelmed at the newness of it:  at first, feeling guilty because I should have known and, then, aware that God is like that - beyond all expectations and ever new.

Truly his mercies are new every day.