Who is Speaking into Your Life?

Ryan Ward

Most Friday mornings I spend time with my friend James who I have known since high school. We became close friends during a State playoff football game when the other team was driving the ball with less than a minute left. As we helplessly watched the other team drive the ball, James grabbed my hand and started to pray. I had two thoughts running through my head: First, I was thinking dude let go of my hand! The second was yes, Lord, help our defense to stop choking. For over 30 years James and I have shared life’s ups and downs despite the fact that we had only lived in the same state for five of those years. So, Fridays are a time for us to catch up, ask questions, and speak into one another’s lives.

I am so thankful for my friendship with James, and that friendship cannot fulfill my need for community that is present in my life. Here at Evergreen we often use the story found in the second chapter of Mark’s gospel to illustrate our need for, and the power found in, community. A paralytic man could not make it to Jesus on his own so his friends carried him (Mark 2:3), and when the crowd around Jesus was too dense to get through, the friends cut a hole in the roof and lowered him to Jesus and he was healed (Mark 2:4-12). The paralytic’s friends were used by God in both the spiritual and physical healing of their friend, and I believe that God wants to do the same in our lives today through community. A good community often demonstrates its love for us by leading us to Jesus when we cannot (or don’t want to) on our own. Thus, my friend James is still an important part of my life, and I need people here in Olympia to do life with (unless James wants to move here, which he totally could but chooses not to….jerk). 

I am wondering what keeps us from experiencing this life giving community? Perhaps we had a negative experience in the past, or are afraid that the garbage of our life may be exposed, or we think we do not have margin in our lives to cultivate authentic community. I relate to all of these experiences, yet I know I need to talk myself into trying because I cannot do life on my own. Do not let the regrets from your past or the “what if’s” of the future hold you back from experiencing community today. We need each other to be the friends that carry each other to Jesus.