Walmart World

I am about to embark on another ten day journey. The next team arrives tommorow morning and I thought to whip up a blog before I pretty much vanish for the next week and a half. With every group that comes and goes, my heart attaches and detaches, but I wouldn't trade this aspect of my work for anything. As much as I love the girls, I dare say (again) that nothing fires me up more then working with mission teams.

I actually don't have to much to offer up this time around. However, I have been thinking a lot about community and what that means and what it looks like. Last Wednesday was the first of weekly devotionals that I'll be leading at the girl's home for all of us ladies in charge. Commenting on our changing world, we all recognized that community still exists but it sure looks a whole lot different then it did fifty years ago. My parents grew up in small towns, attending one church, and hanging out with a mostly unchanging crowd through most of their years. The idea is nostalgic and comforting, like the smell of apples cooking on a fresh autumn day.

Life started out this way for me too. Now, with Internet and travel, my community is truly world wide. It's wild, vast, and overwhelming. At times I feel like a two year old in a massive Wal-mart, separated from my mom and wandering through the looming shelves of economy sized shampoo and underwear. Sometimes I grab onto a familiar looking pair of pants only to realize that the face looking down on me belongs to a stranger. "Attention customers, we have a lost girl, looking for community in aisle two, wearing a brown tank top, blue jeans, and white flip flops. Could said community claim her at the returns desk?"

As I live in this scattered, spreading global village, wholeness and a sense of personhood come from the constancy and permanency of Christ in my life. A year ago my brother, Daniel, married my third sister, Alicia. Between the ceremony and the reception, I recall feeling a strange sensation beneath my ribs, like four walls were closing in on my heart. I paced a small room at the hall, asking God to help me. I wanted to run, but being the MC kind of obligates one to stick around. The claustrophobia left me and I was able to master the ceremony and enjoy the evening immensely.

What hit me? Was it the beating realization that this union left me as the solitaire, single sibling? Maybe a little, but I think it was the ever changing back drop of life that made me choke momentarily. My community was under construction again and my emotions had to do a quick detour in order to get back to the original route.

The original route is the realization that people weave in and out of our lives, but God is the one working the thread. I thank Him for those who came in once and never returned. I praise Him for those friends who enter and re-enter from time to time. I glorify Him for the loved ones who are always with me and love me no strings attached. Most of all, I am just glad that I am my beloveds and He is mine. As a grown two year old in a Wal-mart world, my hand is held by the hand that created community. Who's holding yours?