Five Minute Friday: Community

I'm joining the Gypsy Mama for her Five Minute Friday Challenges. We write because we love words and the relief it is to just write them without worrying if they’re just right or not. No editing, no back peddling. We take five minutes on Friday and write like we used to run when we were kids. On Fridays we write like we believe we can fly. Won’t you join us? Today's subject: Community




I walk into the office on a gloomy morning and am grateful that before I say anything, before tears fill my eyes, I get a hug.


She's become my work mamma.


Five years ago she started to hug me, even when I flinched and my shoulders seized up. I wasn't used to the affection or the care, keeping everyone at arms length. She braved my cold exterior time and time again, melting me from the outside in.


I place my purse at my desk and get started in the nitty gritty of ministry---the paperwork and office supplies, the phone calls and routing, the files that each represent broken hearts and hurting people. Some days I wonder if the work I do makes any difference, and then a coworker pops her head in just to say hi, or I get a fist bump or a sincere 'how are you really' from my boss, and I know that here I matter.


It's 5pm on a Friday and most everyone is gone, the office quiet, the cubicles dark. I walk by each one and thank God for the faces those desks represent and come to realize a good and strong truth---that while I've set about my work to change the world, it has changed me. Nestled in our little maze of office space is a family, an organic community that has pierced my heart, changed me, and stretched me out bare in the best possible way.


Community, it does that, knitting hearts together and stretching them into patterns and designs that only God knows, connecting hearts and minds into this glorious thing called the Body of Christ.


Acts 2: 42 They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and to fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer. 43 Everyone was filled with awe at the many wonders and signs performed by the apostles. 44 All the believers were together and had everything in common. 45 They sold property and possessions to give to anyone who had need. 46 Every day they continued to meet together in the temple courts. They broke bread in their homes and ate together with glad and sincere hearts, 47 praising God and enjoying the favor of all the people.















Comments

  1. "Community, it does that, knitting hearts together and stretching them into patterns and designs that only God knows"...I just love this! Thank you for sharing your story and for the beautiful message it conveyed. Have a blessed weekend :)

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    1. Jacque, thanks for stopping by and the kind words!

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  2. I, too, have been surprised by community that was there even though I didn't realize it. Everytime we talk or work or even show up to work, we are opening ourselves up for being part of one of many communities. Blessings to you!

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    1. Marianne,

      Thank you for stopping by my blog! Community continues to suprise me. Not until this post did I realize that it has changed and molded me, as it should. We all need each other... "iron sharpens iron." :-)

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