Clean Community

**Sit quietly, eyes closed and in silence for one minute before reading.**

    Community is messy. It's full of mistakes, hurts, forgiveness, reconciliation. Rich community includes ups/downs, rights/wrongs. It includes what it is to be human, and for Christians, humans trying to follow Christ.

    Clean Community … what an oxymoron! I do not think such a thing exists!

    I love community but hate the messiness of it. Stepping on toes, hurting someone, being hurt, misunderstandings, weariness, false expectations, disappointments, etc. So community is anything but clean and it is utterly messy.

    In this beautiful mess is life, a rich life, a life lived with others and with God. There is opportunity for reconciliation and redemption. Community is not clean but often it is so worth it. In exchange for the messes we get meaning, depth and authentic relationships. In exchange for messes we receive grace and we offer grace.

    May you embrace the messiness of community today.

**Sit again in silence for as long as is available to you.**

Hidden Hurts

**Sit quietly, eyes closed and in silence for one minute before reading.**
 
    Why our culture is one that runs to isolation when hurt, I don’t know. I know I run.

    We are a culture that puts on a mask and pulls back, pretending we are okay when inside we are deeply wounded. My prayer is that we would become people that share our wounds, our hurts. That we would not be afraid to “go there” wherever “there” is. That we would not be afraid of our own tears, pains and fears and we would not be afraid of another’s.

    May God help us to meet others in their hidden hurts. May the Spirit move us to see, hear and love those who hurt in silence and in shadows.

**Sit quietly again in silence for as long as is available to you.**