Not Just One

Not just one.

Rather, many together.

Brushing against each other,

we can leave bruises or beauty.

Threads of Conversation

Community

Alone and absent of light, these stones would not be nearly so beautiful.

In Your Shoes

Too often I jump to conclusions and am pretty quick to criticize people's actions. Without knowing what experiences inform the person's behavior, I label and dismiss the person as quickly as I do their actions. I certainly don't hear them anymore.

I'm not saying that my goal is to agree with everyone, it's not. I am saying there is a great deal of room for increased understanding that comes from hearing, seeing and loving my neighbor.

At the beginning of this year, instead of making a New Year's Resolution, I chose a word that would motivate me to positive action. My word is community.  It seems to me that hearing, seeing and loving my neighbor would be in line with building community.

Here's to being willing to try and understand what it is like to be in your shoes...and for being willing for you to see my shoes, too.

Here's to community.

In Your Shoes

Naming the Year

I got the idea to name the coming year from this blog post called What the Year Needs Most. If you have time, check it out. The thought is to name the year with a word that will reflect the hope we have for the time ahead. It will help to focus our thoughts and efforts...to be intentional in our living.

Immediately, one word came to mind and I've decided to let it stay as 2013's name...Community.

To build community, we have to take a look at how things are now, a good look, an honest look, not with the intent to criticize but with the intent to pray, heal and then build.

There will undoubtedly be good things about the community we look at. And there will also be some sad things and hurtful things where tenderness, humility, forgiveness and love are needed.

There are always things we can do to improve community, things we can do to foster and encourage community. When we do them, there is a ripple effect. When we do not, there is a ripple effect.

It takes effort and commitment and work to love one another well. And it is worth it. 

Fortunately, there is a source of Love that never runs dry that I can tap into and allow to flow through me as I seek to care for the community around me.

For this reason I bow my knees before the Father, from whom every family in heaven and on earth derives its name, that He would grant you, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with power through His spirit in the inner man, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith; and that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ which surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled up to all the fullness of God.
Ephesians 3:14-19

Urban Fields

They come together and stand side by side, urban and rural, concrete and wheat. They are so different yet together, beautifully so.

To accentuate the differences, I brought this image into Photoshop and added a texture layer. Still not enough, I played with the colour and contrast until I felt it represented well what I felt the image was saying. The contrasts were key to this image...but the contrasts needed to live well in community with each other.

The Buddy System

Everyone needs somebody. Side by each, we are stronger.