This kind of encounter with God drops me to my knees.
It was an ordinary day of packing up my laptop, cords, books, banana, and water before heading up the hill to write. At the last minute, I squeezed in my sketchbook. It’s heavy and cumbersome, two reasons that make it a rare haul.
I climbed the hill, spread out my goods on the desk, and prayed. Lifting up our community here on the blog is nothing new, but over the past few weeks, I’ve also prayed for our NEW Facebook Group, Creative Pauses. It’s a newborn babe and I feel like a first-time mother.
But something more was stirring.
I opened the sketchbook and laid it flat with bright white (and blank) pages facing up. I didn’t want to form a Facebook Group just for the purpose of saying I have one or for polishing up a book proposal.
If life has taught me anything it’s that authentic community is a rare and treasured gift.
And this is when God moved in such a way that all I could do was hang on for dear life. In rapid-fire delivery, specific images along with words, sentences, and paragraphs targeted my sketchbook.
It began with a campfire.
So I drew one in the center of my page, and these words quickly followed:
I imagine a campfire with roaring flames in the middle of a wide-open field.
The field is surrounded by homes of all sizes and shapes. Inside, are imperfect people from all stages of life who love, create, wrestle with sin, offer grace, homeschool, and worship. They are our homes.
One-by-one we make our way toward the campfire blazing in the distance.
Moving closer, we hear crackle! and pop! from well-seasoned wood and catch the indelible scent of smoke flowing through the field. Eventually, we all move close enough to notice benches and blankets placed around the fire. Picnic baskets overflowing with the finest of foods fill in the spaces.
We didn’t gather the wood.
We didn’t split the kindling or light the fire.
We didn’t prepare the food or pour the Chick-fil-A tea.
God prepared it for us.
A place for us to come and gather around the campfire to share our stories, to tell of His goodness, to marvel at His handiwork, and to consider His great love for us.
“Whoever is wise, let him heed these things and consider the great love of the LORD.” Psalm 107:43 NIV
When we intentionally choose to step away from our to-do’s to pause and reflect on the goodness of our God⏤and receive it⏤we cultivate a life of continuous worship.
The kind of life God uses to help heal relationships, bring change to communities, and impact the future generations we will never know.
When we get up and return to our homes surrounding the field, we continue to feel the warmth on our backs.
And our clothes still carry the holy and exquisite scent of biblical community.
I fully believe this “download” was for us⏤for this community of believers who believe there’s more to the Christian life than checking off a list of scriptures read, and a prayer prayed while scurrying out the door. Both are valuable, but we are confident that one of the many benefits of being His is being able to meet with Him⏤to listen, and to receive. As Lysa TerKeurst says in her book, “Made to Crave”:
We were made for more.
And this is why I created our Facebook Group, Creative Pauses. It’s simply an extension of the community we share here. But there, we can all join in the conversation. By joining the group, you will also have access to helpful downloads, fun giveaways, and special events like this one coming up on September 17th:
Do you feel the warmth of God’s presence in this place? Here are two ways to move toward the campfire:
Simply type your e-mail address in the sidebar (just below “Coloring Pages” with the bird in flight) to subscribe to the blog. I post every other week and you’ll also receive a monthly letter. You can unsubscribe at any time.
Because surely biblical community and coffee go hand-in-hand.
For instance, remember the eavesdropping that took place in a North Carolina cafe last October? (If not, you can read about it here.) My being tucked away in a dark corner of a coffee shop isn’t unusual, but my willingness to interrupt the conversation of two young women I’d never met? Highly unlikely.
If you know me or have followed my writing for two minutes, you know I’m an introvert to the core. I love people but quickly crumble inside without ample space to breathe. Tapping keys, not stranger’s shoulders, is more my style.
But God.
Two words that weigh as heavy as the world He came to save.
Who needs Once Upon a Time when But God starts the story of every believer?
My story began three decades ago, but God used two young strangers as a catalyst to reboot my sluggish spirit.
“God wired us for biblical community. Yes, even us introverts. Since moving to the country, I’ve sensed a tug to be involved with women at a nearby campus. I don’t know one woman yet, but God does and I look forward to seeing what He will do. Want to join me in praying for God’s lead on that particular adventure? (I’d love to pray for yours too!))” – from my post, The Day Eavesdropping Inspired This Titus 2 Woman to Tears
I touch on the answer to this prayer in a follow-up post, The Night This Titus 2 Woman Hosted a Tea Party. Biblical community involves more than simply gathering together, but spending time with our small group women, getting to know them, and allowing them to get to know me feels like a healthy first step for this late-blooming introvert.
In fact, after I type this post, the list-making begins in preparation for our church’s women’s retreat this weekend. And this might be a good time to define the word journey, as used in the title of this post.
Journey:a passage or progress from one stage to another (dictionary.com)
Staying home, drinking coffee from my afternoon mug (yes, that exists), writing, playing with my grandkids, organizing organizational books currently stuffed in a cluttered closet⏤these are comfortable places for me. Traveling, sharing a room with even the best of choices (and she is!), being with truly wonderful people 24/7, and all that goes with this is not comfortable for me.
But God is doing a new thing, I perceive it.
He is making a way through my comfort zone, providing refreshment in a place that’s long felt deserted.
I have a long way to go on this journey with much to learn, but God is helping me progress from one stage to another. He’s not asking me to become someone I’m not. Instead, He’s empowering me to become someone I could not possibly be without Him.
Yes, the enemy whispers there’s too big of an age gap for connections to be made this weekend, but a young woman once told me that Titus 2 women are needed — and we Titus 2 women need them too. So I prepare with an excitement that’s surely not natural.
And to think it all began in the corner of a crowded, dimly-lit coffee shop.
In keeping with the definition of a journey, where would you say you are in relation to pursuing biblical community?
a. sipping lavender lattes in the cafe corner? (pre-clueful)
b. receiving words from strangers that could be a “direct message” from God? (open to receiving)
c. feeling oddly awkward that God might be up to something you didn’t expect? (contemplating)
d. taking steps to put yourself in the path of biblical community? (still clueless but desiring to become more like Christ to the point of obedience?)
e. signing up for a women’s retreat or other gatherings that are not normal for you? (becoming a comfort-zone crusher!)
f. fully integrated into biblical community (refusing to allow natural tendencies to overrule God’s supernatural power, putting the gospel on display in beautiful and unexpected ways.)
I’d love to know! Share in the comment section and you might just win your own eavesdropping session at Starbucks. {Told you I had a long way to go!}
Thanks for stopping by the Tiny House on the Hill. If you’d like to receive my bi-monthly posts, plus Tiny House Tuesday, where you can spot the latest photos and updates, subscribe in the sidebar. As a small token of my appreciation for your support of this ministry, you’ll receive three fall calendars with daily prompts to watch for God’s goodness, perhaps in ways you may not expect.
Our focus on Summit’s core values continued yesterday. Below are snippets from Kyle’s compelling sermon on the value of biblical community. I encourage you to visit Summit’s site to hear the sermon in its entirety.
Matthew 22:34-40
His religious audience knew from Deuteronomy 6:4 that they were to love God with all their heart, soul, and mind—but others? Jesus ushers in a radical change when He commands us to love our neighbors as ourselves.
We have little to do with who moves in next door, works in the cubicle close by, or beats us to the Target cash register after a long day at work — but that’s Jesus’ point. We’re not only to love those who look like us, smell like us, or talk like us — but everyone. God has placed us where we are for divine possibilities.
“Jesus makes it very clear that spiritual formation is about relationships. Relationships with God and with others.” – Scott McKnight, The Jesus Creed
Jesus would pay the price on our behalf so that selfishness could be put to death. We are empowered by God’s Spirit to live a new life with wholehearted devotion, freeing us to follow hard after God. By God’s grace, we can know Him, love Him, and love others in a way that He desires. Awaken these desires within us!
In response:
1. We need to actually live connected.
“We
think we’ve chosen our friends, and in reality, a few years of
difference and dates of our birth, a few more miles, the choice of one
school rather than another, any of these chances might have kept friends
apart. But for Christians, there’s strictly no speaking of chances. A
secret master of ceremonies has been at work in your life. Christ who
said to his disciples, “You have not chosen me but I have chosen you,”
can truly say to every group of Christian friends, “You have not chosen
one another, but I have chosen you for one another.” At this feast, it
is he who has spread the board, and it is he who has chosen the guest
list. It is he who sometimes does and always should preside. Let us not
forget our host as we eat.”
-C.S. Lewis
2. Resist isolation. Does our commitment to biblical community reflect God’s commitment to community? We’re not talking about church attendance but living connected to those who God will use to shape us into being more like Christ.
3. Live for one another.
“In many cases, we may, by the rules of the gospel, be
obliged to give to others when we cannot do it without suffering
ourselves…If our neighbor’s difficulties and necessities be much greater
than our own, and we see that he is not like to be otherwise relieved,
we should be willing to suffer with him, and to take part of his burden
on ourselves; else how is that rule of bearing one another’s burdens
fulfilled? If we are never obliged to relieve others’ burdens, but when we can
do it without burdening ourselves, then how do we bear our neighbor’s
burdens, when we bear no burden at all?” [Jonathan Edwards, Christian Charity, The Works of Jonathan Edwards]
Because people matter to God, they matter to us.
What “neighbor” will God place on our paths this week to love as Christ loves us? Lord, give us eyes to see and ears to hear so that we might put the Gospel on display.
Campus Pastor Brook Taylor delivered a timely message from Acts 2:42-45 this morning. As with all the Snippets, I try to jot down everything verbatim, but it’s not always possible.To listen to the sermon in its
entirety, I invite you to visit Summit’s site.
Here goes…
Listening to or viewing a sermon online/TV isn’t a bad thing — but using this as our only means of doing church is not how the Church was designed to work with the Word of God. [Watch for an upcoming blog post as I explore this subject in more detail. -CB]
Sometimes, in searching for the “right” small group we think that being around others who are like us in life stage, affinities, backgrounds, etc. will naturally make us more apt to draw closer to the Lord — but the truth of the matter is that biblical community thrives through our common identity in Christ. He is the only commonality we need to enjoy true fellowship. Rubbing elbows with those who have different strengths, weaknesses, and struggles helps us to grow as Christ followers. [Watch for an upcoming blog post on this subject as well – a personal testimony, if you will. -CB]
True community doesn’t just happen. We must be intentional.
The more we pursue Jesus Christ, the more we’ll have a growing love for His people.
Intimacy with God is the pursuit of God amidst the people of God.
I’ll close with the final question that was posed to us: Are you engaged in true biblical community?
If not, what’s holding you back? Stay tuned this week as I share some of my own personal journey with life/small groups. You may be surprised.
Cathy Baker
A Subscriber Gift for You
Join the Creative Pauses Facebook Community
Vacation Devotional Guides
My Amazon Affiliation
I am a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for me to earn fees by linking to Amazon.comand affiliated sites.
Are you a member of the Creative Pauses community?
Sign up for Cathy's monthly newsletter to join our community and receive the latest seasonal gifts, posts, behind-the-scenes information, creative resources, and giveaways!
Unsubscribe at any time.
Welcome to the Creative Pauses community! Make yourself right at home.
