keepin it real
I have experienced some really awesome things in my life. Probably the thing I am most thankful for is community.
Community doesn't happen overnight - and it most certainly doesn't happen with everyone. One of the small groups I lead (when I say small...I mean small - there were only 3 of us) at Cornerstone was a branch off of the bigger one I did for our appartment that year because the 3 of us were so tired of not being able to really be genuine with a bigger group of people as we had in the larger one. So...we decided we would call our group "keepin it real" - which you might think is over-used but we actually coined it before everyone started using it.
I was so struck by this group. No one ever really ran the group - it just happened. We contributed as God showed us something. If one of us was hurting we banded together and helped in ways that mattered. This became so part of who I was that as I started ministry I talked about this kind of life constantly. This life of coming out, so to speak, and being honest was infectious. I found that as I modeled to others they began to taste and see how life could be so much easier if we just confessed and lived openly with God and others.
Ministry happened and it was great. Relationships were built. I saw God work in ways I had never seen before. Somewhere along the line though I forgot the lesson of my small group. I began to lose my soul in the shuffle of it all. I was no longer bearing my soul - but hiding it. I still brought it out into the open - but only with certain company because of times I had been burned. The balance I had once found was no forgotten or lost.
Someone I know well even confronted me about this at one point a few months ago. "The sad thing is," he said "you aren't even keepin it real anymore." That's when I knew I had gotten off track. I began to come to God at that point and just allowed him to speak to me about things he saw in me. Listening is a hard thing to do - but for me recieving is even harder.
Why would I not want correction when looking at this truth from First John...
If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness. (1 John 1:9)
Even though the truth was blinding at first...I think my eyes are beginning to adjust now that I have started walking in the light again.
Community doesn't happen overnight - and it most certainly doesn't happen with everyone. One of the small groups I lead (when I say small...I mean small - there were only 3 of us) at Cornerstone was a branch off of the bigger one I did for our appartment that year because the 3 of us were so tired of not being able to really be genuine with a bigger group of people as we had in the larger one. So...we decided we would call our group "keepin it real" - which you might think is over-used but we actually coined it before everyone started using it.
I was so struck by this group. No one ever really ran the group - it just happened. We contributed as God showed us something. If one of us was hurting we banded together and helped in ways that mattered. This became so part of who I was that as I started ministry I talked about this kind of life constantly. This life of coming out, so to speak, and being honest was infectious. I found that as I modeled to others they began to taste and see how life could be so much easier if we just confessed and lived openly with God and others.
Ministry happened and it was great. Relationships were built. I saw God work in ways I had never seen before. Somewhere along the line though I forgot the lesson of my small group. I began to lose my soul in the shuffle of it all. I was no longer bearing my soul - but hiding it. I still brought it out into the open - but only with certain company because of times I had been burned. The balance I had once found was no forgotten or lost.
Someone I know well even confronted me about this at one point a few months ago. "The sad thing is," he said "you aren't even keepin it real anymore." That's when I knew I had gotten off track. I began to come to God at that point and just allowed him to speak to me about things he saw in me. Listening is a hard thing to do - but for me recieving is even harder.
Why would I not want correction when looking at this truth from First John...
If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness. (1 John 1:9)
Even though the truth was blinding at first...I think my eyes are beginning to adjust now that I have started walking in the light again.
