The Power of Community & Love

When I began to really wrestle with knowing God in college, I drank in information through a fire hose. I had previously been exposed to various aspects of the Bible, Jesus and God, but I still knew almost nothing. I began my nonstop investigating, reading, asking questions and trying to understand the God who seemed to be calling me to Himself (though I put up a fight). I read devotionals, picked up the Bible and started journaling through each chapter that I was reading and discerning what it said.⁣

⁣

The hardest part of my fledgling faith at the time was prayer and relationship with the Lord (and it might still be that). Since talking to people about my current experiences (see this blog) is so difficult for me to do, talking to God about it is very similar, especially since there is some complicated theology thrown in about God's omniscience making it hard to understand relationship with Him. Talking to God about anything was difficult. He was easier to write about, to talk about rather than talk to or engage with directly. Talking to God also evoked in me somewhat of a fear of rejection, not hearing anything or finding out He isn't real, and thus finding myself a fool.

⁣

It’s not really a surprise that the relational aspect of knowing God was difficult for me when simple, honest and deep friendships also posed a challenge. It’s not like I would suddenly sprout great relational skills only with God and not with people. Therefore, once I gave myself to a relationship with a friend in the college ministry I attended, my relationship with God also continued to catch fire. There was some key in letting myself be completely open with and known by another person that allowed me to understand a bit of how relationship with God must work as well. My friend who accepted me in my confessions, prayed with and for me, invited me and challenged me gave me a human example that I could then use to grow my relationship with God.⁣

Not only did this friend help me set a base of experience to which I could have a prayer life with the Lord, but having this friend and ultimately a community helped me experience what the love of God might feel like. It's easy to be taught in the Bible that God is love, that He loves us, that He sacrificed for us. However, this is mere knowledge unless it's converted to a felt experience. I believe the community that came around me, that loved and supported me in the midst of my stumbles and mistakes began to help me experience an iota of the love that must be emanating from God the Father. Community love set an example for my heart to know that it must be loved by God. It helps convert theological identity into a felt experience that pulls me further into wanting to grow with the Lord relationally.

⁣

It’s not a surprise then that community, taking care of one another and loving one another is so often mentioned in the Bible because we can be taught through others how to love God and how to be loved by God. Knowledge is one thing, experience is another. We now live in the age of the Holy Spirit working through the lives and hearts of the people that know and love God.⁣

⁣

In John 13:14-15 Jesus commands us to love one another.⁣

“A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.”⁣

⁣

Community and being known dramatically transformed how I am able to deal with anxiety, but it also has dramatically altered the way that I experience God, Himself. Therefore friends, what are you waiting for? There is so much power in love. What does it look like to do what Jesus said, and love one another, right now? Today? This month? This year?