Imminent Danger – Fleeing for Your Life – What 3 Things Do You Grab?
Should the unthinkable happen, what would your heart crave? Resting in God’s Love, pt. 3 of 3
The Brutal Does Happen
Life can turn on a dime, on a diagnosis, or ... a disaster. Hurricane Helene, a storm that lasted for days, wreaked havoc across 6 states last September. Then, in January, the Southern California Wildfires ravaged the West Coast.
Storms and disasters are unpredictable, devastating, and unforgiving.
When life is turned upside down, we quickly realize what’s important. What is vitally important to you? If you had to flee with the clothes on your back, what 3 things, besides family, would you take with you?
What is Indispensable?
I’ll mention only 2: I would take the ability to communicate: my cell phone, tablet, walky-talky, smoke signals, whatever. It is vitally important to stay connected.
I would also take the hope and determination to find people who care, people with whom I can experience loving community, people who will hug me, regardless of what I look or smell like.
When people lost electricity, phone service, and internet, the storm's devastation deepened profoundly. The storm separated and isolated. People desperately craved connection and community, but to no avail. Power and phone grids were down, roads were impassable, and many in the mountains were totally alone. Connection and community were lost in the storm.
Thankfully, multitudes of volunteers and multiple relief agencies sprang immediately into action to provide immediate rescue and relief to those suffering. Their aim: to connect with and to offer a loving touch, a hug, to those suffering, as well as meeting their practical needs.
God’s first question to Adam was “Where are you?”, not “What have you done?”
Why are connection and community indispensable to the soul and to rest in God’s love? Because God both designed and desires it. In Genesis, His first question to Adam was not to shout, “What have you done?” But he asked, “Where are you?” I believe God approached Adam with curiosity and gentleness. He desired reconnection with Adam. He missed their walk in the cool of the day.
Connection and community happen when I’m vitally connected to God, who loves me, to people who love me, and whom I love. My life cannot flourish or thrive without it.
Dr. Curt Thompson says, “Suffering comes to everyone, but we can endure it, and even endure it for a long time – as long as we don’t have to do it alone.”
Here are some joys and grace gifts of not doing life, suffering, or recovery alone.
A Safe Place
Being connected in a Christian community provides a Safe place. Dr. Thompson also believes that every human being is born with the need to be “seen, soothed, safe, and secure.” I take being safe to mean not being in immediate danger or subject to abuse. I am protected, and someone is in my corner.
A Secure Place
Being secure takes safety to a higher level. In my security, I am at peace, loved and cared for, and at rest. It is the biblical picture of the weaned child cuddled by his or her mother – safe, secure, and content, totally secure in her warm embrace.
A Grace Place
Christian community provides a Grace place. I need a safe place and a grace place where I am accepted and I can share my “stuff” with no judgment. Do you realize how rare this is? Do you have an unconditional grace place? I recently heard of a “confessional community” where a group gathers under a covenant of love, acceptance, and grace and shares openly their trauma, fears, pain, and shame.
In one meeting, a person shared their experience of trauma, brokenness, and shame for the first time. When finished, she stared at the floor for several seconds before courageously daring to look at the faces in the circle. What she saw stunned her. On the face of every person, she received gazes of love and grace. Wow! Do you long for that? I have two such places, and they are indispensable to me. I pray you will find your Grace-place.
A Good News Place
Being connected in a Christian community provides you with a Gospel place. It is a good news place, and a growth place. Paul prayed, “That you, being rooted and firmly established in love, may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the length and width, height and depth of God’s love, and to know Christ’s love that surpasses knowledge, so that you may be filled with all the fullness of God. (Ephesians 3:17-19).
Take note of the plural “with all the saints.” To fully comprehend and experience the love of Christ, I need you, and you need me. Furthermore: Knowing Christ’s love is the key to being “filled with all the fullness of God.” I’ve often shared that Belovedness is the key to a healthy soul and best experienced in community. As one of God’s Beloveds, I am healthy and whole when I give it away.
Community is a Messy Place
Living connected in community presents us with Challenging Realities, too. So . . . what is challenging about Christian community? Life is messy. Family is messy. Trauma is messy. Therefore Christian community is messy. But in community, I will lovingly, gently, and sacredly hold and care for those in my community in their mess.
Community may be messy, but it is worth it!
My life is messy, too, and I love those who love me in my mess. Oh, what a blessing. Oh, what a sacred opportunity. Oh, what a beautiful way of moving the Gospel forward. Jesus loves us in our mess . . . and so do others. Thanks be to God!
Jeremiah 6:16 is one of my favorite scriptures. Jeremiah 6 is written in the plural, addressed to the “community”. My paraphrase highlights the plural emphasis:
"Let us stand at the crossroads and look; Let us ask for the ancient paths, together we ask where the good way is, and walk in it, and we will find rest for our souls together." (Jeremiah 6:16, NIV, italics mine)
My soul is at rest today. I pray that yours is at rest, too. That is God’s desire – that you find rest for your soul. How is your soul today? Do you have a safe place and a grace place where you find rest for your soul? How can you discover that?
Spiritual direction provides a safe and gracious place where your heart and story will be held in sacred love. Spiritual direction has profoundly impacted my life. To learn more, click BelovedLiving. I would be honored to serve you in this way.
Thank you for this great piece! We all need a community of grace!
What a wonderful God that loves sinners and comes to rescue us. No one is too far gone.