Our Stories
Community
By Kelly Humphreys | posted 03/24/2010
"Encourage each other and build one another up" (1 Thessalonians 5:11)
"Lead a life worthy of the calling to which you have been called, with all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love" (Ephesians 4:2)
Community equals Support equals Wisdom. Throughout my life I have done some things in community but have done much more alone. I have communities of my marriage and family, friends and church, but often I make decisions or do things alone. Alone time can be very good but -- confession time -- sometimes I am not a team player. (A shout out to my grace-filled husband.) Do I suffer from Only-Child Syndrome, perhaps? But God lately has been showing me how to humble myself and how to listen. He Himself is a community, a perfect one of Father, Son and Spirit. And I am learning a lot from these community opportunities God has been giving me.
First, for the last two months I have been reading the Bible through going cover to cover, in large chunks -- not in a prescribed timetable but whatever I have had time and energy for that day. I had read the Bible through before but never so quickly, and it has helped me to get a sense of the big picture of life. As I started the New Testament a week or so back, I started walking the dusty paths with Jesus with a sense of Story deep inside me -- God's story and, in a sense, my story. I love seeing how things are interconnected, how God is a Redeemer and so much more. He tells the story of Creation, Brokenness, Redemption, Restoration, Freedom, Suffering, Joy, Grace. Love overriding all.
What has helped motivate me is being part of a community at Creekside who is doing the same thing, including my husband. Perhaps it is the competitive spirit in me (!) but I wasn't about to fall behind, so I didn't get bogged down in Isaiah, for example. The Psalms were difficult to get through quickly, because I kept slowing down and praying through them. I thought it kind of funny, I couldn't help myself. Prayer is a part of me and I have been praying through the Word as I read, but the Psalms in particular really slowed me down. Yet the community was spurring me on. A wonderful side effect of doing this is that it has enriched my prayer life so much. It reminds me of the verse in Isaiah I found this time, which talks about taking root downward and bearing fruit upward. (Isaiah 37:31)
Another thing I have been doing in community lately is going through Lent -- identifying with Jesus on the way to the cross -- denying myself in a small way to identify with Him. I've given up all liquids to drink except water during this season (taking Sundays off). My husband and I decided to follow the lead of our college daughter and do this with her. It's been challenging, especially for me to give up soda and hot chocolate -- oh, and tea. And coffee. But because I am doing this in community, it really wasn't all that difficult. (At the Starbucks where I work, they know to get me my hot water when I walk in the door.) A switch has been turned on in my brain -- I don't want to let my community down. It's not a legalistic thing, it's a "want to" thing. Some good things -- I have been really well hydrated, and God is prompting me to think of the living water that comes from Him. I also think and pray for those in the world who do not have clean water to drink. So even though every once in a while I'd like to go jump in a pool of soda pop (which actually would be kind of sticky, I think), I'm motivated to continue to not drink it, because of community.
Other communities I am in are so life-giving to me: the recent Call Class, the Creekside prayer team, my women's Bible Study, and the CRM prayer team (a ministry Doug and I are associated with). I don't have enough space here to tell you about them all, but God uses these communities to teach me to rely on God, and on others, rather than just on myself. I learn so much and it is thrilling.
The last couple of days I have joined another community. A few of us from Creekside are joining Jenean's group to do the Susan B. Komen 3-Day Walk for the Cure this year in Seattle. So far Beth, and Caroline and I are doing this with her. Want to join us? In September we will walk 60 miles! We need to raise $2300 each. (Find us on Facebook!) I am glad to do this to support Jenean, who is an amazing breast cancer survivor, and all the other wonderful women at Creekside who have suffered and survived this horrible disease. I also will walk in memory of my aunt Esther, who died from it, and for my dear cousin Linda, who survived it. If you want to walk with us, or partner with us by donating to our Walk for the Cure funds, please let us know. We'd also appreciate your prayers! It will be challenging but I will train and raise funds and walk ... in community. God is amazing!
Kelly can be reached via email.
