What communities do you have in your life? Any types, think big or small. Some possibilities are your workplace, your church, school, friends, family, Bible study, aerobics class, motorcycle buddies, book club, crafting buddies, etc. etc. There are different communities in every person's life.
But what brings these communities together? For some, like work and school, it is required and you don't really have a choice but to attend and be a part of that group. Even in these that are mandatory, each community like those listed above is united in some kind of common purpose, goal, attitude or understanding. Educate, learn, worship, lose weight, create things, drag pegs around tight corners... You fill in the blank for the communities you thought of.
At the convention, it was SO cool to be surrounded by a new community in the common purpose of youth ministry. Paid youth ministers, youth volunteers, some teachers, some juvi workers. I am not good at judging numbers of people but attendance was in the thousands. Here's a photo from our seats in Big Room on day 2. I took this picture more because the tech pit was intriguing (and I'm afraid we spent a decent amount of the time trying to figure out which person down there was switching the video feeds) but it also shows that there were a lot of people there. This is just the floor of the arena and up one side a bit. The first level was mostly full on all three sides of the stage.
Ok, so you have lots of communities in your life and it's really cool to be a part of them, some more than others, some bigger than others. Here's another question. Where/when in your life is your community of choice just yourself, or yourself and God? I say choice because moments like these are so hard to come by these days. Life is crazy for most people. Weeks are a marathon from Sunday to Saturday, filled with days that are a sprint from morning till night. Where in all that can you just chill without any particular community??
On Day 3 of the convention, during the 4:00 seminar block, I didn't find any of the available seminars particularly relatable to me, plus I was getting a bit worn out, mostly mentally. I had gotten a whole lot of information in the past three days and just needed to chill. As my facebook status said at the time: "Skipping this seminar block to process and journal. Lots of thoughts." So I found an empty bench and did just that:
Saturation point. What does that look like? In this instance, it was the point of lots of info being tossed at me in a short amount of time. But it could be lots of other things too. Too much going on, too many commitments, trying too hard to please everyone. You name it. In chemistry, the saturation point is where you can no longer dissolve anymore of something, let's say sugar, into something else, like water. This point varies by temperature and volume but let's not get way technical in this analogy. (I kind of loved/rocked chemistry in highschool and college, so sue me) Once you reach the saturation point, what happens to the rest of the sugar? It's just floating around in the water, useless, unable to be absorbed. So wouldn't it be best for us to just never get to that saturation point?? If it means some part of us ends up floating around, useless, wouldn't it be better if we take time out of our commuity filled lives to have community with self and God? To slow down, process, renew.
Journal, read, pray, think, snooze, eat a granola bar...
You are speaking to my soul right now. Thank you. I will listen!
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