Designed Us to Live
“They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and to fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer. Everyone was filled with awe at the many wonders and signs performed by the apostles. All the believers were together and had everything in common. They sold property and possessions to give to anyone who had need. Every day they continued to meet together in the temple courts. They broke bread in their homes and ate together with glad and sincere hearts, praising God and enjoying the favor of all the people. And the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved.” Acts 2:42-47
Insight
When I was in college, I met a group of people who changed the trajectory of my life. I wasn’t walking with God at the time, and if I’m being honest, I didn’t feel like I was really missing out. I had friends, I was doing well in school, I was working and making money, all the boxes of “adult life” seemed to be checked. Then after work one night, a co-worker invited me over to play games and something about the people I met there was different. I couldn’t put my finger on what it was at the time, but I truly believe they were living out the picture of the early church described in the verses above.
They were doing life together for God’s purpose.
While everyone didn’t always see eye to eye, there was something deeper they all seemed to be living for and I couldn’t get enough of it. The group consisted of about 20 people. Some were in college while others worked 9-5 jobs, but they met together, ate together, and laughed together. They encouraged and challenged each other in a beautiful way that I had never experienced before. There was both authenticity and vulnerability as well as accountability and encouragement. It was such a beautiful thing to experience as I learned about a loving God who pursues me with the same measure of grace.
Fast-forward 10+ years… while I kept in touch with most of those people, I had 3 littles, was juggling work, trying to figure out what it looked like to live as I once did in an entirely different season. Then the pandemic opened my eyes to just how full our lives had become and how little time I was willing to give up to simply do life with other people. It wasn’t that I didn’t want to or didn’t see the value, but life had just gotten busy. Sadly, meeting and breaking bread with others had become harder than I wanted to admit.
My family was always moving at a pace that felt rushed. I felt rushed in conversations with neighbors and rushed when I was picked my kids up from school, certainly too rushed to build true connections. The reality I came face to face with was that life wasn’t going to get less busy. Our jobs weren’t going anywhere, and the kids weren’t going anywhere, so if I truly believed that God had designed us to live in community with one another then it was up to me to reorganize my life to reflect that.
Over the last year or two, I’ve had some sweet moments where I’ve seen the fruit of intentionally leaning in. There have also been many moments where I’ve failed and missed an opportunity to connect because I was mentally on to the next thing. But the picture painted in Acts of what it looks like to be the Church isn’t something that is going away. We were created for community and created to do life together. We were designed to be in fellowship.
When we devote ourselves to breaking bread and meeting together, it positions us to experience fellowship and true connection. I won’t pretend that my family has cracked the code for how to do this, but the goodness that God has brought from our willingness to extend ourselves, even in small ways, has left me longing for more. To be fully known and to fully know another is a beautiful thing that no to-do list or achievement could ever fill.
Reflection
What relationship do you need to tend to and why did this connection come to mind?
Prayer
God, thank you for creating us to be together. Thank you for all the beautiful things, both good and hard, that fill my life. Help me to have eyes to see where You are calling me to lean in and include others. Give me a vision that is bigger than my day-to-day tasks and courage to reach those You have placed in my circle. Amen.
Katie Robinson, Port City’s Children’s Ministry Home Coordinator, wrote today’s devotional.