The higher calling of living life in community

This year has sure brought about many changes. The pandemic has been like a curve ball none of us expected. It certainly has brought about many ramifications. One of the hardest, I believe, has been isolation. At the beginning of it all, we were instructed to quarantine. What we thought would be a few weeks turned out to be more than 6 months. For obvious reasons, most of us could not have remained quarantined all this time. As it turns out, we cannot remain isolated. We need each other.

Unlike mostly everyone, this time, I may have been the exception. Living at the Ranch, life still included most of the people in my daily routine. I continued to interact with all the kids and my coworkers, who have become my friends. By God’s generosity we have much space to enjoy the outdoors, so we didn’t feel trapped indoors. I’m grateful for that, yet I have also learned to live, or should I say learned to survive, in isolation.

You don’t have to be locked indoors or in quarantine to feel isolated or alone. Sometimes one can be surrounded by crowds yet feel all alone. Though I’d never wish it upon anyone, eventually we all have those moments when we feel all alone. As the quarantine extended there started being much concern from the health experts of the danger it is to remain in isolation because one of the effects would be an increase of suicides. Have you ever wondered how come we don’t do well in isolation? There are different things people try to do when trying to get away from that feeling but unless its turning to Christ it will only help temporarily or worse it will end very badly.

From the beginning, in Genesis, we can see that God designed us to have relationships, to live and fellowship with other human beings. When God created Adam there was only one thing where God said something was not good and that was that man was alone (he had no companion). We were created to fellowship first of all with God and also with one another. If you keep reading Genesis you will soon find that mankind sinned and how that completely changed the dynamics in our relationships. Despite our well-deserved consequences for our sin, still God provided a redeeming hope of salvation. (Now, isn’t that just amazingly gracious?!)

We were meant to live life together. And that is the glorious redeeming work the Holy Spirit does in us when we turn to Christ in repentance and submission. Being part of a local church, is not just going to meetings together. It is living in community in and through which God is glorified as He restores and makes us more like Him. Don’t hate me for saying this, but doing so remotely IS NOT it. (To clarify, what I mean by remotely is through some sort of media whether T.V., Youtube, Zoom, or the like.)

As I mentioned on previous posts, I went through a period in my life where I really felt all alone. I had moved away from all my dear friends, my church family (whom I miss daily), and though I was meeting new people and going to a good friendly church I was not being able to make deep connections. But despite of that, God has consistently spoken more clearly to me when I have been at church. Never really made the connection until after this quarantine.

These last few months, I am going through a process that, though I can’t share at the moment, is a huge decision. I had been praying over that and moving forward. Well, after almost 6 months of not physically being at church I was finally able to go and worship with my brothers and sisters. It was then, that God put in my heart something I had hesitated or thought unnecessary to do. As I drove home that afternoon, that’s when I saw how meeting corporately is so important. The more I thought about it, I realized that most of those defining times when I felt God speaking to me, had been mostly during a church service.

I am not saying that it is the only place or setting where God reveals Himself or speaks to us. He speaks to us mainly through His Holy written Word, aka the Bible. Yet He still continues to communicate to us in different ways, which will NEVER contradict His Holy Word. I understand if you don’t agree, but I encourage you to speak to God about this.

Another time when I felt God speak into my heart, while at church, was when I had first moved to Guadalupe to live and work at Ranch 3M. Being so close to my beloved home church, I started fantasizing about the possibility of going to church there in the future. Well, it wasn’t long before God set me straight. *Chuckle*

The church I am attending to in Juarez has the beautiful custom of corporate prayer after our worship time. Well that time, one of the pastors prayed very fervently for our country, Mexico. [A quick flashback- before going on my sabbatical, I did not have a heart for my country, but a few days before returning, God gave me a heart for Mexico, and I had felt it as an assignment to come back and pray for my nation.] So when the pastor finished praying, I almost felt God tell me, “you haven’t asked me where I want you(to congregate). I want you here, you are working in a ministry in Mexico because that is where I want you.”

It was not exactly what I would have loved to hear, but when you know a little bit of His tender Heart you know that He knows best. And you know, when you submit, He always gives you hope. As I drove home that day, He again impressed on my heart that it didn’t mean I could not visit. I’ve yet to visit, but I know that in His perfect time He will make a way.

Living in these times can bring out an appreciation for those things that we have taken for granted. Unfortunately, maybe going to church and living life together with other believers has been neglected or not fully embraced. My hope is that we will not just embrace and pursue it but be willing to give it the importance and priority God gives it and that we will have the courage to take the risks, if any, to attain it.