Some Encouragement for Some...

Real wisdom, God's wisdom, begins with a holy life and is characterized by getting along with others. It is gentle and reasonable, overflowing with mercy and blessings, not hot one day and cold the next, not two-faced. You can develop a healthy, robust community that lives right with God and enjoy its results only if you do the hard work of getting along with each other, treating each other with dignity and honor.
James 3:17-18

Community, living life together with other Christ-followers can be an awesome experience. It can also be rough, tragic, irritating, and disheartening. I speak through experience on both ends. I thank God for the experiences and things he's done in and around me through everything. Through the awesomeness of God, I've been living life around an amazing group of people this past year. It has been awesome to watch people grow closer together and closer to Christ through all sorts of circumstances and experiences. I pray that this will continue as we get back into the school year and the normal routine of life after summer break.

Lately I've been in contact with people who are struggling...in terms of relationships, people, and circumstances. There is so much I want to say, but then again it's tough. I feel for them. I don't want their relationship with God to suffer as a result of a person, relationship, or circumstance. I've been doing a lot of talking to God as a result. It's hard for me to know what to say.

One of the things I keep thinking about is the verse above. It takes hard work to develop healthy and robust community. The hard work is worth more than we know. The result is amazing. It's up to us to try and keep God at the center of our thoughts. Too many times people, relationships, and/or circumstances trip us up and cause us to lose our true focus.

So...when thinking about what I should say to these people...a passage that comes later in James comes up. Basically...I'll let James take it for a little bit...

Friends, don't complain about each other. A far greater complaint could be lodged against you, you know. The Judge is standing just around the corner.
Take the old prophets as your mentors. They put up with anything, went through everything, and never once quit, all the time honoring God. What a gift life is to those who stay the course! You've heard, of course, of Job's staying power, and you know how God brought it all together for him at the end. That's because God cares, cares right down to the last detail.
And since you know that he cares, let your language show it. Don't add words like "I swear to God" to your own words. Don't show your impatience by concocting oaths to hurry up God. Just say yes or no. Just say what is true. That way, your language can't be used against you.
James 5:9-12

Anyone who knows me knows that I'm a musical person. As a result, God does a lot of speaking to me through song. I love it. This past weekend we, the Buckman's, had a chance to listen to one of our favorite groups...Caedmon's Call. What made the experience even more memorable was that we were able to bring Sarala with us. Caedmon's has written a song called "Sarala" which gave us the idea for her name. We were able to get a note for Sarala that was signed by one of the songwriter's earlier in the year. It was awesome to get to introduce her to them...share some of how God has done amazing things in healing her and all...and to get a picture with her. What an awesome thing to have in your scrapbook. She's almost two and I figure...we'll take her wherever we go. She loves music. I love that she loves music. It was awesome to watch her recognize a song...smile, clap, and then look up at us as to say..."hey...I know that song...it plays on my radio."

Anyway...back to what I was saying. One of the songwriters in the band, Andy Osenga, has written a song to his small group...his community where he lives. The song is called "Hold the Light." Below is an excerpt of something from Caedmon's website:

One of those is “Hold The Light,” a song Osenga wrote to his small group. “‘Hold the Light’ is easily the most personal song I've had on a Caedmon's record,” explains Osenga. “So much of this record is about family and community and how they give us strength when we don't have it, and for me, this song serves as the prime example for how deeply that honest community can affect us.”

For those of you to whom this post is directed...I love you and am praying for you. Take heart in knowing that God loves you and cares...knows...and is working regardless of everything.