Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good. (Romans 12:1)

Do not grieve, for the joy of the Lord is your strength. (Nehemiah 8:10b)

I love how when God tells you not to do something

He replaces it

With something else

We are not to be overcome

But to overcome

We are not to grieve always

But to find joy in the Lord

As I sit on this silent dock

Reading Romans 12 and Nehemiah

Thinking about community

One body

Many parts

I ache with this thought

I do not always want to live in community

An introvert

Easier for me to stay behind the lens

Rather than entering into the picture

Community is messy

Imperfect

Often painful

Yet God calls us to community

Anyway

We can’t do this alone

And I know it is true

Even if I wish it were otherwise

Just this summer

I have seen the beauty of community

A friend

Rescuing my daughter

In the right place at the right time

And with a willing heart

What a blessing to be reminded

And I think of Hosea called to marry a prostitute

Nehemiah and the opposition he faced

Judas Iscariot

Jesus knows what is in a human heart

How faithless we are to one another

Yet he calls us to community

Anyway

Every person I meet

An imago dei

No matter how difficult they are

How much we may disagree

Still precious in God’s sight

We are called to be fearless

To go out once again

And live in community

Anyway

Our wounds and betrayals

Do not give us the right to shrink back

To be victims

We are are not victims

We are overcomers

And God knows the truth.

It is His to avenge.

In an interview Elizabeth Smart

Abducted and assaulted

Said she followed her mother’s wise counsel

To not let her captors take

Even one more day from her

To steal her joy

She chose to live with hope for her future

Anyway

And really isn’t it the best proof

That God is within us

When we can live each day in a broken world with joy?

Despite the pain of the past

When we can love our enemies

Anyway

It is not my rational arguments

That will convince the world He is who He said He is

It is his love

Active, unselfish, real

Like the Charleston families

Who lost their beloved family members

In a terrible act of “white supremacy” and hate

Who chose to forgive

Anyway

Because we have been forgiven

Our sin is just as terrible

As Elizabeth Smart’s captors’

Or the Charleston murderer’s

Just as offensive to God

Hurting someone else

Who may struggle to forgive me

Even as I struggle to forgive

God loves us with a grace and mercy

I cannot comprehend

Anyway

And we are called to be like Him.

Do justly

Love mercy

Walk humbly

Anyway