It’s Monday night.
I pull onto my friend Julie’s street and park my VW bug, looking at the clock to check the time.
7:00. I’m on-time.
I walk up her front steps, past an abandoned tricycle, and to the front door.
There’s no need to ring the front bell – Julie’s door is always open on Mondays.
When I open the front door, I hear chatter and laughter.
My heart is already happy.
I walk through the hallway to the kitchen and living room, past the old church bench piled with children’s books.
A collection of antique mirrors hangs on the wall. (The Nester would love Julie’s style.)
I am immediately greeted with hugs and hellos.
It has been two weeks since we were last together, but it feels like yesterday.
I love this house and the people in it.
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I was invited to join Julie’s Monday night group four years ago. She started it more than 15 years ago, when she was in college. Though her life circumstances have changed – she got married, become a mom, started teaching at Belmont – her dedication to community never wavered.
And what a community it is.
Every other Monday we come together at Julie’s house, eat delicious food and discuss a Christian book.
(We just finished The Prodigal God
From the outside it would appear that we’re just a group of woman getting together for book club.
But really, it’s more of a life club.
While the book brings everyone together, the group is not about a book.
It’s about the people in it.
We share our joys.
Our struggles.
Our thanksgivings.
Our desires.
Proverbs 17:17 says friends love through all kinds of weather, and that is my Monday night group.
We love one another through it all – and because of it all.
Being a part of Julie’s group has given me a deeper understanding of why Jesus needed the disciples- and why they needed him.
We are not meant to walk this life alone.
Who has taught you about the importance of community?
By Jessica Turner, The Mom Creative
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My answer is not so much of a “WHO”, but rather a “WHAT.”
My moving to a new place, in a new country, has highlighted for me the vital necessity of real community. I look back at my years spent in neighborhoods and churches in the U.S., and I could literally kick myself for all the ways I excused away the importance of community–schedules or a messy house or having to cook. I missed so many opportunities, and now that finding community is SO MUCH HARDER, I am tasting the value of it all the stronger.
It is so worth the fight it takes to pursue it.
Thanks for the reminder.
Love from here,
laura
I love your perspective!
All the people who have been in groups with me over the year, each one unique and special. Some I liked right away. Others it took a while. But it isn’t about ‘liking’; it’s about about discovering why we were brought together. People move in and out of groups. God is in it.
Thanks for the inspiration. I used to always be in a group, but cancer in the family pulled me out two years ago, made groups gathering during high-risk flu seasons unadvisable. But now I am free to join in again and am looking for the right spot for me. It’s tough when I’ve always been the one others look to to pull something together. If none of the options I’m exploring pan out, I just may have to jump in and start one.
I will be praying for the right community to sprout in your life.
I, too, have learned to appreciate the value of community since moving. But God is faithful, and provides!
Yes, he does
I love this story! I knew it was you when you mentioned the Beetle. 🙂
I love my bug. 🙂
Oh how I long to be a part of a group like this! Sounds like so much fun!
This is exactly what I was going to say Melissa! What a blessing to have such a beautiful community of God fearing women in your life. I love that.
I am indeed blessed. Praying you experience community where God has you. xo
Thanks so much for sharing this. I L.O.V.E. my Sunday School Class and the ladies in it. We are a very diverse group, but we share the same love for Jesus. They are very special in my life, for now and for always!
Blessings today and always,
Kaye
Matthew 21:22
This is so lovely. The image of walking up to a door and KNOWING you are welcome? Supported? Beautiful. I wanted to be walking right up those steps with you and I didn’t even know where you were going. A wonderful sentiment through beautiful writing.
My community and main support is my family. We all live within 10 minutes of each other now which is fantastic. My Dad just had a cancer scare (thankfully it turned out to be a scare, at one point we were told it WAS cancer, somewhere between Stage 2-4) and the way my family was just there – no questions – for each other through everything was amazing. I know I could walk right up to my parents or either of my brother’s house’s at any time for any reason at all and be welcome, supported, loved, without question. Community is beautiful.
OK. You’ve convinced me. I’m gonna go ahead and start that small group I’ve been dreaming of.
In answer to your question–my daughters have taught me about the importance of community. I suffered really bad post-partum depression with my first daughter and hit rock bottom. I didn’t know that first-time motherhood could be so very isolating–and certainly didn’t plan for that to happen. It was a tough lesson to learn. Now with my second baby I am making a whole-hearted attempt at fellowship, and discovering its many blessings. You’re right: we are not meant to walk alone.
Thx for sharing, what a beautiful story!
Ok, God, I here ya. I have been dragging my feet about going to our every other week women’s group from church. I am struggling with some depression and anxiety and would really prefer to sit at home, hence the feet dragging. I am trying to learn to listen for God and obey, and this is about the 3rd time I have read about this subject today, so I guess I will be attending my first ladies group tomorrow night!
Thanks for the push! 🙂
Bernice
http://bernicewood.wordpress.com/2010/09/20/how-to-get-lucky/
I’ve been hearing so many things about community lately. Perhaps God is trying to tell me something! I hope one day I’ll be a part of a group like this. It sounds wonderful!
There’s all sorts of unintentional community – I find it at work. at play (riding horses) and in the carpool line but it’s the intentional community that forces me to the next place spiritually. I met with 2 friends every other Wednesday morning for over 5 years. They picked me up – sometimes scooped me off the floor – and walked me to the next spot.
[…] Monday Night Community […]
How wonderful for you to have such a great group of women and a time set aside for each other! I long for such a thing in my life and have committed it to prayer in my daily prayer life. What an encouragement it is to me to read that this can and does happen in others lives!
For me community is like breathing… I thrive when in community. I, like you, pull up to a house – hear the chatter – and my heart is warmed.
I’m an extreme introvert… so to say I love community, for me, says that it is God’s heart that is driving me into it – because it is not a natural thing for me. We so need community to grow, thrive, and survive. Great post!