Journal Fodder 365 - Prompt #17

A new chapter in Journal Fodder 365 and the prompt is being present and being absent.

If I am absent from something spiritually or emotionally, even if I am there physically, then I am not bringing my best self to the situation. We are all a unique mix of gifts, talents, skills, temperament. We are all necessary. If I am absent in some way I cannot contribute.

If I am fully present, bringing all I have to the party, then I can bring my unique viewpoint. I can give and receive, bless and be blessed, love and be loved, grow and cause growth.

When I am absent, I am isolating myself from community.

When I am fully present, I can play a part.

community

I've been thinking a lot about community over the last year. We are all part of many different communities - where you live, where you go to church (if you do), people who share the same pastimes, the school community, etc. We have connections to lots of different people for lots of different reasons.

Last Sunday we had a joint service at church with our Sudanese congregation. It was fun to share together and learn a bit more about each other and find that, despite our obvious differences, we share a common faith that draws us into community together. We also discovered connections that we didn't know existed. A sort of 'six degrees' of the church. And although we don't always speak the same language - my Dinka is non-existent - we all laughed at the same things.

Our connections are important. Through them we become part of a network, meeting people we wouldn't necessarily meet in our normal sphere of life, striking up new friendships and thus having our lives enriched.

Who will you connect with this week?

Family

This background page has been sitting in my journal for a little while. I went back to look at it the other day and pictured the word 'family' in the middle of it. I put it down and waited to see where it led.

I started to think about the definition of the word. For most people it is your immediate relatives - parents, brothers, sisters. Then there is the extended family - grandparents, aunties, uncles, cousins. And sometimes we add friends into that mix, especially when there are so many 'blended families' and broken families.

And then there is the church family.

We don't choose our family in the way that we can choose our friends, but there is a bond of blood. But with church family there is no choice. The Bible tells us that other believers are our brothers and sisters. We should be rooting for each other, mourning and rejoicing together, pulling together to get things done. And when there are fights and disagreements, we need to reconcile and forgive so we can move forward in the right way again.

So who in your life do you root for? Who do you rejoice and mourn with? Who do you fight with and then hug while you cry together?

Who is your family?

Team spirit

I was having fun playing about with this page, not having to do anything to do with a particular letter (hurrah! The A to Z challenge is over). I was using glazes over foreign language and music paper collaged on to an old children's book. Then I fossicked around in a drawer and found this photo that my husband picked up at the Op-Shop at church. It is an Australian football team from 1917 (Don't ask me which one. It just says IJFC on the ball).

The photo seemed to fit well on the background, so I stuck it down and started to mull over it. The word 'team' seemed to be appropriate. A team is really a community, something I have been thinking about a lot lately. A team has to work together like a body. They all need to be playing the same tune and speaking the same language, otherwise there is a cacophony and miscommunication.

What 'teams' are you on?

What are the common goals?

Are you all on the same page, with the same tune and the same language?

C is for Caring and for Community

As you can see, 'caring' was the word I prepared for today. But everything I'm reading at the moment started to talk about community. So, here goes: God cares about the church being the pattern for community in the world.

Instead of conforming to the worldly ideas about relationships, the church should be modelling the ideal - a community of believers who care for one another, sharing the ups and downs of life, celebrating and commiserating together.

How far short we fall.

My prayer is this: that the church will return to the model shown to us in the Trinity. That we will be the place that the world looks when it wants to know how to live together with grace, love, joy, and forgiveness.