Everyone’s searching to belong. They’re either searching to belong to a family, to a friend circle, to some sort of group.
I’ve recently started taking back my health and through that, I’ve joined a gym and signed up with a coach. There’s like a hundred of us fighting to take back our health. What is incredible is the community and the fellowship from like-minded people. It is ridiculous. We’re all fighting, we’re all standing, and we all encourage each other because we are in the same race and we are trying to take back our health. It is awesome.
I think, a lot of times, when people become a Christian, they start searching and looking for, “Where do I fit in? Where is the place of community for me? Where am I going to be encouraged and loved and someone holding up my arms when I’m about to fall into temptation?” We’re striving for the same community that I have at my gym.
Reading Genesis 28:3—I love this because God says, “I’m gonna multiply your numbers until you’re a community of people.”
I think what we’re searching for, we can find within our own families. But the problem today is that every family is dysfunctional. Parents don’t stick together. They get a divorce. Strife steps in and tears down the bonds in marriage and families. It tears apart bonds mom from daughter, father from son, siblings from siblings and you just have all these splintered strife.
Even in school, what do we do? We promote segregation of the family. You go into your grade; your sibling’s going to go to their grade. You’re never gonna see each other all day long. When you do, the older one’s probably going to look down on the younger one because they’re not the same age. We automatically start categorizing everyone by age through school.
I believe the ultimate community that we’re all searching for is provided through the family. A family doesn’t need to be perfect; it just needs to be united. I think God set it right there. “I’m gonna multiply your numbers until you’re a community of people.” I think you can ask big families how they feel. They’ve built in friendships, built in bonds that small families never really experience.
I just pray today Father, that the walls we built around our own personal family, with close friends and close acquaintances would be torn down and that we would be like-minded that we would be one just as Christ was one with God; that we would choose unity over having our way. We would choose to lay down our life over taking up our platform or our grievance against each other. That we would no longer be easily offended by one another, but we would be mighty encouragers every single day, in Jesus’ name.
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