How fortunate I am to be part of a community! So many people would love this, long for it even.
Yes, I've just been inspired enough by a church weekend to write my first blog for nearly two years. Bear with me, I have already mentioned the word church...
You see this was the simple message I got out of this weekend : be kind to one another. Church is a fellowship - or community of you like.
So today, I watched my 3 year old eat lunch with a lady in her 80s whose husband recently died. She misses him terribly. Amazingly, she has the same sense of humour as my daughter and they laughed naughtily throughout a long lunch with lots of 'grown-up people.'
I watched as an older couple sat patiently and played board games with my 6 year old trying hard to ignore his blatant cheating techniques and still encouraging him.
Another set of Grandparents ran the childrens activities so I could sit in the hall and listen to the talks, child-free!! What a blessing that is - to be able to actually listen to someone, anyone, for a few minutes without being interrupted.
It wasn't all about the older generation. For me, I played my bass guitar in a band for the first time in 10 years. Wow. It was great. Not my playing...but being part of a group of talented musicians from a range of different ages and backgrounds, all with a common aim and purpose. So much more fun than playing on your own!
In this world, many people are lonely, isolated or without family. It may surprise people (including many of my friends, I am not the best example) but Christians are actually very normal people.
We talk, we share, we laugh, we disagree, we forgive. We are all different sizes, ages, cultures and shapes. What brings us together is our sense of community, our common purpose. We are definitely NOT perfect, and not 'one size fits all'.
If you're looking for a community, a sense of belonging, a family - you may just want to give church a try...I hope you will be pleasantly surprised!
