There's something about being shoulder to shoulder and up to the neck in your neighbor's physical, emotional and spiritual mess that's comforting.It's the foxhole of life where abundant life is born.
The thought that something is as significant and valuable as we are told is usually grasped upon exit or thereafter – when you are no longer planted in that atmosphere, and it's peacefully shocking to realize these truths.
Texas – valued more than ever now that I'm in Georgia. Family – valued more than ever now that I'm not surrounded by them. Community of life breathing, Kingdom builders – valued more than ever after coming home from the World Race.
The value of living amongst those that you can goof up around, cry with, throw a fit and lose it all with, yet still find honor and grace with is the community we seek – the Kingdom Jesus says to "seek first".
Haitians, Malawians, Dominicans, Mexicans, Romanians, Filipinos, and many more cultures experience the raw and full heart of God together, as they live in this cultivated environment and choose to exercise it no matter the circumstances or dreams at stake (They most often quickly learn that those dreams are fulfilled faster in this atmosphere). Their concerns and hearts desires are bundled – met with a new mindset that transforms generations.
They work, cook, eat, play, cry, laugh, struggle, fail, celebrate, build, learn, triumph, and experience the raw heart of God together. This is the original intent of how the Gospel is to be carried out.
On this past trip to Haiti, I saw a team laugh, cry, and lose their inhibitions completely as they realized their common purpose – seeking to experience the Heart of God – intimately with each other. I heard the team speak of how things worked so well, how they felt so much closer and how it's incredible when they came together in one purpose. This is called unity – and there is Kingdom driven power in it.
Where do we find grace-filled, life-breathing, honor-giving, life-changing unity where a pat on the back no longer cuts it? In this trench of life called community – tight, messy, raw community.
The only place that your heart pumps abundant life into your veins and flushes the old to breathe in and out the new is Kingdom Community.
