Our house was directly across the street from the clinic entrance to Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore. We lived downstairs and rented the upstairs rooms to out patients at the clinic.
One summer evening as I was fixing supper, there was a knock at the door. I opened it to see a truly awful looking man.
After heavy fighting, a soldier returned to camp. With the next day being a Sunday, the Chaplain had set up church service. The men were asked to take out their Bibles or Prayer Books.
The Chaplain noticed one soldier looking at a deck of cards. After service, he was taken by the Chaplain to see the Major. The Chaplain explained to the Major what he had seen.
It takes strength to be firm.
It takes courage to be gentle.
It takes strength to stand guard.
It takes courage to let down your guard.
True spiritual community is not something we create. It is the work of the Holy Spirit. By grace we are one in Christ. By grace we are family, sisters and brothers beloved by our common Father. This is a gift. It is an objective reality. The challenge is living out this reality and making it a part of our experience.
“It is not good for the man to be alone.” – Genesis 2:18a
We need one another. Ever notice how many “one another” mandates there are in the New Testament? Love one another, forgive one another, encourage one another. The New Testament was written from the assumption that we would live faith together.
Many years ago when I worked as a volunteer at a hospital, I got to know a little girl named Liz who was suffering from a rare and serious disease. Her only chance of recovery appeared to be a blood transfusion from her 5-year old brother, who had miraculously survived the same disease and had developed the antibodies needed to combat the illness.
During my second month of nursing school, our professor gave us a pop quiz. I was a conscientious student and had breezed through the questions, until I read the last one: “What is the first name of the woman who cleans the school?”
Be still and know that I am God. – Psalm 46:10
Sometimes when we encounter the things we most fear (rejection, failure, sickness…), we panic and thrash about and scream. But God calls us to have a little faith. If we will be still, we might just discover that our greatest fears are only waist deep, and that God has become a foundation we can stand upon.
