Stories

A community centered on Christ is what we are built for.  It is what we will be received into when we enter heaven.  It is about being in the presence of the God that we have a relationship with, while others are also present there, desiring the same relationship with Him.  Tonight, our staff sat around a camp fire that we built together and began to share our testimonies.  It was an incredible likeness to the heaven-like community that we one day desire to be a part of.

As we all shared our stories, we made ourselves vulnerable to one another.  Vulnerability is something God calls us to.  It allows us to express love to one another.  God made Himself vulnerable to us, through Jesus on the cross, which allowed Him to show us the greatest love.   Living in a community centered on Christ requires us to become vulnerable so that we can express love to one another.

As we shared our stories, we all painted different pictures of different lives, different triumphs and different struggles.  There were a few commonalities between various stories, but there was one commonality that all of them shared: God had shown grace in each of our lives.  We would not have come together to share our lives if that was not true.

There is something much, much bigger than us.  That was evident tonight through our stories.  It is God.  He is a God who loves and redeems.  Hebrews makes a reference to God as the “author and perfecter of our faith.”  If we allow God to have the pen in hand, and allow Him to write our stories, we are living for something much greater than this world.  We are living for a life and a joy everlasting in the presence of our creator.

One of the beautiful things about life is when God picks up the pen and writes us into each others' stories.  Our communities are groups of people who truly have nothing to tie them together until they allow Christ to be the center and anchor in their midst. 

To continue to live, a community has to be willing to grow.  A Christian community is inclusive and expanding.  There is a simple way to be a part of our community this summer – prayer.  Prayers for this staff; prayers for the students and churches that are making their way to Green Lake, WI; prayer for the leaders of this ministry and the other ministries taking place at Green Lake This summer; prayer that God and His love are evident in this community; and a prayer of thanks for His grace that covers us and fills in the places we least deserve, but are in desperate need of it.

~SP