Community

I’m reading ‘Restless’ by Jennie Allen, and was so challenged by her words about community,

“We have to pick our people and commit to them, expecting (emphasis mine) they will hurt us but not giving up easily on them when they do.”

Y’all, community is HARD work. I’m convinced that’s why so many people are lacking it. We all want it to be easy. It’s not. But most things worth having aren’t easy.

I told a friend the other day that she’s been my friend long enough (14 years), that I think she’s stuck with me. There’s a lot of truth to that statement, though. When you’ve been through the good and the bad with someone, invested time and energy over the years in them, they tend to ‘stick’ for life.

Later on in the same chapter of ‘Restless,’ Jennie references a story of a friend in the hospital who wasn’t expected to live (yet, she did). There were so many people outside of the ICU, that they overflowed the waiting room. “As the world has watched, we’ve all wondered … If it were us in that bed, have we loved deep enough to have friends like this?”

I’ve seen what it looks like to have that kind of community, and my heart breaks for those who don’t. If you feel you’re lacking in this area, I challenge you to reach out and initiate. Invest. Love those in your circle, and along the path of your life. Pick your people and commit to them, for God does beautiful things in community.