A plaque citing Romans 8:28 hung in my parents’ living room:
We know that all things work together for good for those who love God,
who are called according to his purpose.
That scripture verse has been especially challenging for me since my August 4 fall at CHCC, which resulted in a broken right wrist. I love God. I am called to be a disciple. How can all things work together for good with a broken right wrist the day before
leaving on the Texas Mission Trip?
During (and since) I have had plenty of opportunity to find out. Time after time, I have had to call on others for help with even the simplest tasks: opening a water bottle, putting on a work glove, latching a seat belt, getting dressed, writing a check… The list is endless.
I want to be independent and in control of my own life. But as my spiritual director Barb reminded me this week, “I am not.” We are designed to need one another. We live out our purpose in relationship to God and others. We are created in community.
We are learning what it means to be community as we meet for Conversation and Prayer with Morning Star Baptist Church. We are learning what it means to be community as we establish relationships in Detroit, Michigan and Los Fresnos, Texas. We are learning to be community as we share in the work and financially support the DMARC Food Pantry and Rebuilding Together, as we open wide the church doors to neighborhood groups and AA meetings, as we respond to needs around the world through Week of Compassion and the needs of those in our congregational midst.
We are at our best and most faithful when we work lovingly together for the good to which God has called us all. Yes…it is humbling. Yes…it makes us more vulnerable than we might like. And yes…it challenges the attitude of “I can do it myself.”
The 19th century French writer Stendhal said, “One can acquire everything in solitude, except character.”
God created us to be together and to work together in community. All thing really do work together for good for those who love God. Thank you for walking and working together in this character-building process. It is indeed good for those of us who love God and are called to God’s purpose.
In community,
Pastor Candice
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