Comfotable in Your Own Skin

Last night, my family and I had an opportunity to hang out with some friends.  There were 27 people at this gathering…and 16 of them were kids (if my math is correct ) Anyway, it was such an amazing night.  My wife and I love all the people we hung out with…we thoroughly enjoyed ourselves.  Why?  Because everyone there was REAL.  We didn’t feel an ounce of judgment or competition in the room.  We were simply free to be ourselves.  It is truly a blessing to be with a group of friends that accept you for who you are, do not judge you, do not critique your parenting skills (even if your child is having a rough night) and do not expect you to be something you are not.  Often times, with the nature of my job, I can feel the need to appear to have it all together…and have to put up walls in relationships.  Not that I have anything to hide…and I am certainly not embarrassed by my family.  But, unfortunately, there is a lot of judgment in our world.  We are just extremely blessed to have such wonderful friends and last night we both just felt comfortable…comfortable to be ourselves and enjoy the evening…comfortable being who God created us to be…comfortable to have “normal” conversation…simply comfortable in our own skin.  What a great picture of what the Church looks like.  What a great picture of community.

 

Cut

So my wife led me to this song that she found from the group “Plumb.” As I read the lyrics, I couldn’t help but think of community. People are in desperate need of community. So many people are longingly seeking acceptance, love and hope. Why? Because those things are basic human needs. We all need to feel loved, accepted, safe and we all desire to have hope and meaning in our lives. When those needs aren’t met…when people cannot find hope or acceptance, they will look for it somewhere — often in the wrong places. That’s what this song is all about. It’s about someone searching for feeling…for acceptance…for hope…it’s about someone just wanting to feel anything. So, they turn to cutting…just so they can find relief…just so they can feel something. What can we learn here? There are teens in our community who feel exactly what this song expresses. Maybe you can relate with the song. So many kids desperately need acceptance, hope and love. They are living in a dark place and long for the shelter and safety of the light, that so many of us have found in Christ. Check out the lyrics to the song:

“Cut” by Plumb

 

“I’m not a stranger
No I am yours
With crippled anger
And tears that still drip sore

 

A fragile flame aged
Is misery
And when our hearts meet
I know you see

 

I do not want to be afraid
I do not want to die inside just to breathe in
I’m tired of feeling so numb
Relief exists I find it when
I am cut

 

I may seem crazy
Or painfully shy
And these scars wouldn’t be so hidden
If you would just look me in the eye
I feel alone here and cold here
Though I don’t want to die
But the only anesthetic that makes me feel anything kills inside

 

I do not want to be afraid
I do not want to die inside just to breathe in
I’m tired of feeling so numb
Relief exists I find it when
I am cut
Pain
I am not alone
I am not alone

 

I’m not a stranger
No I am yours
With crippled anger
And tears that still drip sore

 

But I do not want to be afraid
I do not want to die inside just to breathe in
I’m tired of feeling so numb
Relief exists I found it when
I was cut”

We know that throughout history God has rescued those who are in bondage. It’s the story of the exodus…where God hears the cries of the oppressed and brings rescue. As Christians, we are called to live as children of light and be a sign post to the world of God’s goodness. Basically, we get to team up with God and bring rescue and hope to this world. Jesus says, in John 10:10, “I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full.” May we take seriously the call to bring hope, rescue and light into this world. May we truly value community and do our best to accept, love and illuminate this world.

 

Stung By a Bee

Probably the scariest time in my life was when I went away to college. Yesterday, Brad talked to us about the importance of being in a community. We learned that community essentially means “common unity”…a group of people who have something in common. As a group of students and adults, we long to be a community whose DNA is hospitable, accepting, authentic and diverse. When I was in high school, I had community. I had a group of friends that I hung out with all of the time and truly experienced community. Then, I graduated…and headed off to college in the late summer of 1998 (yeah, I know that was a LONG time ago.)

Anytime, you leave a community where you are comfortable, accepted and known (like I was in high school) it is a scary endeavor. So, when I set foot on the campus of Grove City College for football training camp (yes, believe it or not, I used to play college football…I used to be athletic ) I was entering a brand new environment. Would I be accepted? Would I experience hospitality from other people? Would there be an atmosphere of authenticity and diversity? Would I find commonality with anyone? I mean, it was scary. I was away from home for the first time and knew absolutely no one! I desperately needed community.

Luckily, I was able to find community rather quickly. I met a guy named Dave and he was an offensive linemen. I was a wide receiver. If you don’t know much about football, please understand that wide receivers and offensive linemen look completely different and have completely different body types. Basically, wide receivers are fast and athletic and offensive linemen are…well…BIG…and hungry. Catch what I’m trying to say? Anyway, Dave and I talked a lot…and he invited me to sit with him at lunch. Quickly, we found out we had a lot in common. We were both from north eastern Ohio, loved Cleveland sports, loved to make prank phone calls and were both majoring in education. I felt accepted by Dave and we started to form a community among us and some other players that we hung out with.

One of the defining moments of my friendship with Dave was when we were in his dorm room studying and a bee flew in the window. Dave and I both tried to kill the bee by swatting at it with our notebooks. Dave missed…and I being more athletic and accurate swung and hit the bee…right at Dave. The bee then took a nose dive right to Dave’s leg and…went to town stinging him. It was hilarious! And, kind of my fault. I swatted the bee right towards him and he paid the price. For some reason, Dave still liked me after this. We still had community together. That’s acceptance. Our community and friendship still exists as Dave and I, along with some other friends, try to get together once a month to play cards. That’s community…and to think it survived a bee attack is pretty cool.

 

The Ultimate Community

The mind-blowing thing about God is that He Himself exists in community. This is hard to understand, but think about it: God the Father, Jesus the Son and the Holy Spirit all exist and reign supreme in community in a dimension (Heaven) that we cannot see at this point in our lives. They are all distinct expressions of God, yet they are all still God…better known as the Trinity. If God exists in community, shouldn’t we? When God created Adam, He said “it is not God for man to be alone.” God knew how important it was for humanity to experience community. Why? Again, because He Himself exists in a community relationship.

The very fact that God knows that we need community…and desires for us to be in community…tells us that God can be trusted. Think about it…God wants EVERYONE to experience a community of acceptance, diversity, authenticity and hospitality. A God that cares about our basic human needs is a good God…and again, proves that He knows what is best for our lives and can be trusted. Since the Creator of the Universe…Who hung the stars and spoke and created things like trees, the ocean and giraffes out of NOTHING…since that Creator thinks it is important for all of humanity to experience community…let us be a group of Jesus followers who strive to create a community that anyone can belong to. What a way to imitate God!