Communal Living

     Living in community is always a challenge. Living in a Christian community can be even more so. Fortunately, I am continually reminded that it is also a blessing. Here in this tiny place that is just a blip on the map of England, a small country in itself, the challenges of everyday communal living are quite real. For me, they lie mostly under the surface and I tend to be able to give them to God without too many people noticing. But they are there and I know will continue to be there and I will have to continue to submit them to the Lord. I think I am realizing that mostly they are the lies the enemy always tells me, just amplified, intensified. For others, the challenges of the day are more evident.
      I went out the other day with a friend (we both had the day off and fancied some good coffee) and we ended up talking about some of the recent challenges we have faced. And I was reminded of a few things: 1) Sometimes we need to express our frustrations; it helps so often just to give voice to them. Maybe there is nothing we can do in our situation, but talking about it with a trusted friend can help so much. 2) We cannot solve the problems of our world. For me, I am always in a position of submission to authority (as we all are, but I usually seem to be closer to the bottom than the top) and as much as I would love to just sit and talk and figure out all the answers to all the problems in my current tiny world, I can't. I don't have the answers and my opinions matter little. And that's ok. It's not my job to figure out the solutions to the problems. It's my job to support those whose job is to hear the solution from the One who has the answers. And 3) The enemy is always scheming, always plotting to ruin the good work the Lord is doing in His kingdom. In a community such as this, it's so easy to allow him access to our relationships. We work and live and worship and play together, something I think the Lord loves, but our close lifestyle intensifies our relationships, making the good better and the bad, even worse.
     For me, that means I have to remember to get out every once in a while. I love where I live, and honestly, it takes some effort as well as money (usually) to get out and back, but I have to remind myself that too much of a good thing, can be a bad thing, and sometimes I just need a break. Getting out allows me to get away from the people I love and to remember that I do, in fact, love them and that they are a blessing to me. Because they are a blessing, and I am honoured to know them. All of them. I don't know if I could put in to words the things I have learned from living and loving here in this place. But I know my life is richer, my heart is bigger, and the Lord is indeed at work here.