I know people annoy you, but you need them. We need each other, especially when we have those feelings that we don't want to be around anyone. Yes, we need time alone but we need to interact. We need to encourage. We need to laugh and cry and get our priorities straight by being with each other. I am a hermit by nature. I love being alone. I love quiet. I love calm. I love to sit outside and listen to the birds; love to hear gentle breezes rustling leaves while reading a book out loud to my middle child or reading on my own; sketching, sitting, drinking coffee, closing my eyes and letting the sun warm my face. But I need people. I especially need to fellowship with my fellow Believers. We Believers need each other to stay right in our faith and stay flexible and for reaching out to others. Without each other we, on one extreme become cynical and jaded; on the other extreme we become discouraged and fall into despair thinking no one can understand us. We feel like Elijah did -- he felt he was totally alone, the only one serving the Lord (when in fact God had hundreds of people staying true to Him). Sometimes we need a break, but if we stay away too long we forget what fellowship does. We forget where we used to be. We forget what matters. We begin to believe that we can be a healthy believer without ever attending church. That belief is wrong. How can we be part of the Body of Christ if we don't worship with Fellow Believers? And that means being actually physically present with other Believers -- not together in cyberspace. The passage in Hebrew 10 is often quoted. It says, "Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for He who promised is faithful; and let us consider how to stimulate one another to love and good deeds, not forsaking our own assembling together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more, as you see the day drawing near." I've been super stressed this summer. So much going on. I've tried to live in the moment, tried to just take life as it comes, but I still have felt the stress, the weight of life at the present time. We have Vacation Bible School this week. I'm helping with the youngest children. And when we started I didn't want to be there at all. It took a lot of effort and my heart wasn't there. I love the kids but I was drowning in life. I'm happy to say we've had two nights of VBS and God has changed my heart. I am now excited to go tonight to be with the kids. It is a very good thing. What about you? Have you quit being part of ministry because it was just too much work? Have you quit for a season because you are just too tired from your day at work or your day with all those people? Maybe you tell yourself you definitely don't need to spend time with more people, but you do. Go back to church. Get involved. Be part of the Body. Online church can be good but it isn't a substitute for physically being there. |