Loving Bravely

I had an eye-opening conversation with some of the other women at The Journey this week The Journey is a young adult ministry where Corner Bible partners with other local churches at Camp Beechpoint- if you’re ages 18-30 and haven’t been yet, we’d love to have you. We were talking about the fears we all felt when trying to make new friends, and the group of us ladies realized that we all felt afraid, uncertain, and insecure in our first interaction When we first met, we all thought in one way or another, “Oh, I don’t know if she likes me / She probably doesn’t want to be friends with me like I want to be with her / She’s way cooler, higher status, etc than I am” and so on. It was hilarious when we all had voiced these secret thoughts out loud. We were all worried that the other person was “too cool” for us. What a ridiculous lie. And it surely was a lie, straight from the enemy, because already lovely friendships were blossoming between the women in this small group.

Friends, I am sure many of you have felt these same fears and doubts I know they aren’t exclusive to young women in their 20’s Even though we all feel this fear, it doesn’t mean we have to let our fear hold us back from deep fellowship and strong community I think this fear is a direct attack of the Enemy. We need other people to thrive, because we are not made to do life alone Is it any surprise that the Enemy would try to thwart one of the most vital things for us?

I see a theme emerging, with the recent sermon series on unity at Corner, and the things God has laid on my own heart to write about in this blog… And these interconnected things are reminding me of our call as a church, as stated in John 15:12-13:

“This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends”

This is Jesus’ commandment! Not His suggestion, or half-hearted nudge- this is His requirement, His order We need to love one another as He has loved us!
Now, does Jesus love us only on Sunday? And does He only love us, like, a little bit? Does He only kind of want to give Himself up for us?

Or, does He lavish us with His love, goodness, mercy, generosity, grace, and abundance wherever we turn? Does He give us joy, peace, hope, and healing? Does He give not give us Eternal Life in Him?
Think about today, the exact moment you are in right now I don’t know what you have around you, the people in your life, the circumstances you are living in, or what has happened to you, but I do know three things that are true about you:

1. You are alive.
2. God loves you.
3. God doesn’t just love you – He loves you so much that He would give everything which is lot, considering He made the universe to have you.

That is the shortest possible list of things you can be grateful for at this moment And even that is an astounding list This is how much GOD loves US What does that mean for US loving ONE ANOTHER? Indeed, we can’t love perfectly, as Jesus loves But we can love intentionally, and we can love bravely

Building up the church sounds intimidating, but I don’t think it has to be It starts with small, simple actions: We can go up to that lady in church who is sitting by herself a few rows across from us, and say hi We can ask how our cashier at Walmart is, and listen for a real answer. We can look for opportunities to interact with people around us, instead of hiding behind our screens or a book. We can see the people around us as just that- people People who, also like us, are scared to take the rst step to say “hi”, but also desperately want to know that they are loved.

The church is called to grow closer to each other. This doesn’t mean we all have to start a weekly Bible study or attend every extra-church event available on the calendar It just means we all, as individuals, need to look for ways we can be faithful and intentional with the people and situations God has given us now.

Loving one another as Christ loves us is not easy When does God ever ask us to do something easy…? Easy is not an adjective that describes the life of a faithful follower of Jesus just read the gospels. But abundance is. And thriving. And life. These are all things that come from not the smooth road, but the bumpy, winding, difficult path Building a loving community in our churches will challenge us all, but imagine the beautiful unity we will grow in when we learn to love each other bravely.

“Anything worth doing is worth doing scared” -Ann Bogel