Skip to main content

Imbalance Corrected

A couple of months ago a movie line from a 2004 science fiction disaster film jumped out at me. In the motion picture, the earth is experiencing extreme storms and natural disasters because of damaging climate change. At first the happenings are dismissed as less crucial than the birth pains of a new ice age. The protagonist tries to warn political figures of hazards against the environment but is ignored. He explained, "Storms continue until the imbalance that created them is corrected."


I'm not a meteorologist but the statement resonated with me personally. 


Lately a storm has been brewing in my heart that I could not name. For all intensive purposes everything was good, even great; but something was missing. After a period of attempting to ignore the problem, and then trying to explain it away; I remembered the movie and decided to face the storm. 


God's answer left little to the imagination, "You need to be in a group."


I find this truth annoying as I enjoy a diverse group of close friends and feel loved and accepted. Before I got married, I was in a circle of singles who did life together.  We had dinners, game nights, met needs, prayed together, encouraged each other, and shared what the Lord was teaching and revealing. 


Most of us got married and then the shutdown happened. We all remained friends and still support one another. Nowadays when we commune it's more about fun and relaxation and less about growing collectively in our faith. I am so grateful for this type of community and cannot imagine my life without it. That said, there is a void in the area of actively growing in the Lord as a unit.


My husband and I seek the Lord together everyday and it's one of the most beautiful and rewarding connections I have ever experienced. However, there is something special that happens in regular intimate intentional connection centered around God, outside of the home. Sunday morning church service is not enough.  


Our Creator created a multi-level vehicle of fellowship, correction, belonging, growth and power that is His Church.  


If obedience is God's love language and faith is the currency of the Kingdom, community is the heartbeat of The Bride. The heartbeat pumps His blood to every area of The Body.


Just like the heart, community has more than one chamber. Love and acceptance is a section but it's not the fullness. I won't pretend to understand all the facets of complete and perfect community; but a description of the atriums may provide some clarity. 


First of all, blood flows both to and from the heart. Perhaps one of the missing pieces is that vital life-giving often flows from a small few without much reciprocation. True community, acceptable to God, needs to flow both ways. 


Also, pumped blood sends needed oxygen and nutrients, and carries unwanted waste away. If we want this kind of nourishment and cleansing, we need to give and accept nurture and correction.


Lastly, we need to remember the power. The heart is useless without the electrical signals that keep it pumping. God is our source of power. Once activated we too bring life.


Perhaps the lack of complete community has created some imbalance in our world. While we may have been part of the problem, we are God's answer.


How can you bring a more complete type of community to your tribe?


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Revisting: If I Were a Bird & The Season of the Ox

Today I'm revisting two posts from June of this year. My regular devotional reading has me back in Ezekiel and back to the four living creatures. With the Hebrew calendar ending in September, today was the first day I asked the Lord for my word for this upcoming Hebrew year. All things considered, I felt it necessary to revist these posts. Now, I know of at least one dream that was not from the Lord. I'm not sure I am done learning about the ox, but I've learned a little.  If I were a Bird Recently I had three separate people, in three distinct settings begin a thought with, "If I were a bird."  Bizarre, right? At the first comment, I began to joyfully hear Nelly Furtado's "I'm Like a Bird" song in my head. By the third comment, in a matter of just forty-eight hours, I was curious. I could not recall ever hearing anyone share such a thought before, and then to have a few in a short matter of time had me wondering. Seemed either an odd coincidence...
Post a Comment
Read more

Revisting: Wisdom & Authority

Today we are revisting a post from August 18th, 2023. How important it is for each of us to rightly balance wisdom and authority in our own lives. That balance becomes more crucially necessary in marriage. Wisdom & Authority  My husband and I had our routine check-ups this week. He is an emergency room nurse and promptly schedules all of our appointments. For two decades of my adult life, I took care of these matters myself. His planning is a welcome change in married life. He is also handy and takes immaculate care of our yard. Really I won the husband lottery because he also cooks, cleans, and is good at basically everything.   Not that he does everything. We share a fairly even distribution of responsibilities in running our household and raising our daughter. I may not be handy, but I was a responsible homeowner before we met. As someone who left home at 17 and married at 37, I learned how to take care of things on my own, but life is better together. Both my husb...
Post a Comment
Read more

Revisting: Never Ignore

Today, we are revisting a post from July 13, 2023. One thing we can count on is changing emotions. One day we deal with intense anger, the next extreme apathy. Our emotions may not be wise, but they are telling. Never Ignore I came cruising into my day refreshed and ready to go. Then, I experienced anger. Someone's misinformation inconvenienced my easy, breezy day.  Anger is one of those emotions I find less becoming than others. I was trying to calm myself down when Holy Spirit reminded me that I was not designed to reconcile my emotions on my own. In the past, I have fallen prey to ignoring and stuffing my emotions, but nowadays, I am more likely to try and reconcile my emotions on my own. Perhaps when I have "figured out" what needs to change, I then might go to God to request said changes. Today, I managed to be reminded that God likes us to come to Him raw. In the heat of anger or depths of despair, He wants to be invited into what we are feeling, thinking, and exper...
Post a Comment
Read more