Yesterday was the kind of day the reminds me why I love the church so much. While I am away from my family, and when the timing of our reunion is uncertain, it is the simple act of community in the church that at times keeps me sane and whole and yesterday, from start to finish, was a day of community.
Our entire volunteer team spent time before rehearsal giving thanks together as an act of worship. As our team prayed together and gave thanks together I was reminded of how amazing God is and of how thankful I am for a church that can still find things to be thankful for despite its difficult history.
During our worship time we had ten people from our church body come up and say what they were thankful for. As these people talked about their thankfulness for God's forgiveness, for family reconciliation, for the love of a husband or wife or children, for the community of the church, for salvation from addiction, I witnessed more people than I can count in tears. These were not tears of sorrow however, but tears of joy, of happiness, tears that we shared as we saw our own story mirrored in the stories of others in our community, where we all realize we are in this together.
That afternoon our church gathered at a local restaurant for lunch. Obviously we are too large of a church to all get in to one restaurant at the same time, but over the course of 8 hours, with our missions team acting as servers, our church came together to eat and raise money for our next trip to the mission field of the Dominican Republic in support of our missionaries, Allan and Jackie Perez. As I sat in the restaurant and ate food with my friends, as I walked from table to table and talked with new friends and caught up with old friends, I was reminded of the power there is in a shared meal. Eating together is one of the strongest acts of community, which is one of the reasons I love communion so much. I am eating in community with my eternal community.
In the evening I went to watch football with a family in our church. I love them. They have opened up their home to me on countless occasions while I've been down here and have always made me feel like I was part of the family and not some lonely loser with no place to watch football. Sitting on a couch with dogs jumping on me, yelling at the t.v., discussing the future of the church, telling crazy stories from our pasts (like the time my band played for an outlaw biker rally out in the middle of the Arizona desert), and watching them love their kids the same way I love mine, I was reminded again of why I love this church community so much.
None of us is perfect. None of us are immune to hurt, anger, fear, frustration, stress, or worry. None of us has it all together all the time. But none of us are alone. We are surrounded by our community. The way God intended it to be.
Long live the church.
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