Have you ever been in a wreck? Not a fender bender, but a real wreck. The kind of wreck that shakes you to your core and causes you to think that your insides are now on the outside or one that causes you to stop and question everything. A wreck that not only disturbs you physically, but bruises you emotionally and causes you to bleed out spiritually. These types of wrecks are the ones we try to avoid at all cost. They are the ones that we dread and wish no one would ever have to go through. However, they are the same kind of wrecks that we invite people into on a daily bases. Let me explain…
Jesus wrecked my life. He caused me to lose friends, question traditions and give up on different aspects of my life. He crashed my emotional state into a brick wall and turned my normal upside down. He caused me to change my native tongue and speak truth and love. He pushed me into a relationship with an unknown God in an unknown way. I was a sinner saved by grace but lost in eternity. He wrecked me.
Don’t get me wrong I was thankful that Jesus died for me and my name was written in the Lamb’s book of life. However, I was a complete wreck. I didn’t know how to pray or what to start believing. I questioned what kind of ‘Christian’ I was and desired desperately to be labeled a Baptist or Wesleyan or Church of God in Christ or anything. I wanted to fix my wrecked life and have some understanding to my new normal. I was lost in a new found faith and drowning with questions.
When Jesus calls us into His eternity he creates a new normal for us to live in. A new normal that is extremely foreign and filled with questions. Questions that we need to find answers to and questions we need to talk about.
Over the last ten years as a Christian I have discovered that the best place for these questions to be answered and talked through is in a group setting. God calls us to partner with others in this life. To walk with them, learn from them, teach them and pray with them. He urges us to connect with others so that the fullness of the Holy Spirit can be seen and understood in our questions and in our lives. Community is the place where questions become answers, where sorrows become joys and where God reveals His secrets.
If you’re not in community you are missing out on what God wants you to experience and understand. You are missing out on the fullness of this life and the fullness of God in this life. Community is where a wrecked life becomes whole and a whole life becomes His.