A recent retreat taught me a lot about my community. My teachers were high school students and parents and my Church ministry peers.
We have choices. We can choose to love and care for each other or we can choose to be apathetic.
Everyone is affected by our choices. We either build up each other through our care and support or tear down with our emotional exit and apathetic complacency. We can choose to be selfless or selfish. We can choose to feed our egos or we can choose to feed each other through mutual sharing. Sharing the gifts that God gave us sustains and builds our community.
It takes a lot of work and emotional investment to minister to and with our community. Our differences are challenging and can drive us to seek out, socialize and be in relationship with those who are like us. But, we miss out if we are not open to those who are different than us.
God gave us different gifts. We come from different cultures. We have different perspectives because of our life experiences. The challenge is to break the paradigm that our way is the “right way.” God’s tapestry is composed of many different types of thread. What a wonderful quilt we can make if we live and work in harmony with each other.
If we accept each other and embrace what each person has to offer, the People of God will glimpse the Kingdom of God. There is so much potential in what we can learn from each other. There is so much potential for the People of God if we love and accept each other.
God knows us. God knows our motives and what motivates us. Let us ask God for the grace and strength to follow Christ’s example. Let us choose to feed each other through our care and service.
