The Gift of Fellowship

          I think personally, I can forget that fellowship, whether it be in community or in friendships (or marriage, for you married folks), can be a great big gift from G-d. I think that remembering this is important to me, because it allows me to remember my G-d, from whom which all good gifts come from. When I forget that true friends and community are a result of G-d’s love alive in the world, I can often find myself functioning in these environments with thanklessness, without care, with a stony heart.

This year, I found myself in community with others, something that I had longed for for quite sometime. Here at The Treehouse (just kidding!*), my roommates and I are experiencing fellowship among each other. I’m learning that fellowship is a wonderful opportunity to learn about ourselves, what are gifts and weaknesses are, as well as it is a opportunity for us to be purified by the fire that is G-d’s love. Being in community with others is also an excellent and wonderful opportunity for us to learn what it means for us, as individuals to love other individuals, and to realize what type of functions we might serve in the body of Christ.

So on that note, I want to share about last night. Last night, we met at my city director’s (Nate) church, La Iglesia del Barrio, in order to share a covenant that all three teams located here in Philadelphia were encouraged to create with our respective teams. This covenant was designed to be a commitment that we’ve made to each other and to express what it would mean for us to carry this commitment together within our daily lives. This commitment that we’ve made to each other is about loving each other, and choosing to stay in on each other, even when times get tough and even when it seems hard to love and forgive. So as we all gathered together that night in the dimly lit sanctuary, my team shared our covenant with the other teams and the Mission Year alum who have come to visit us. My team leader, Ashliegh,  washed the hands of my housemates and myself in a bowl as a symbol of our commitment to serve one another. I found it to be a wonderful moment, reflective of how Christ put us before himself, with the joy and hope of it restoring relationship with us. Likewise, we want to love each other, even when it is hard, so we can continue on living reconciled to each other. These are some of wonders of being in commitment to those you share the gift of fellowship with.

Before we got our hands washed though, each of us in the sanctuary lit a candle and put it in a bowl of water so it could float among the other illuminated candles. Like illuminated candles, when placed into the water, we cause a ripple that affects everyone else; our lives are interconnected, even if we think they are not. And when the candles move closer to each other, the light that we carry each as individuals become greater -- by ourselves, we carry the Light of G-d, but when we are together, and the closer we become to one another, the brighter that Light shines. I really adored the symbolism of those candles.

I’m not sure what will come about with our time here. All I know is that I really like being with the people that the Lord has put me with, and I know that I don’t want to take advantage of and forget how precious this gift is. These people and the commitment that we’ve made to each other has been put into my life because He loves me. And so, I want to encourage others to look around them and see where beautiful committed relationships can be formed and sustained, whether it be marriage or friendship or family… for being purified in this way, by seeking reconciliation with those around us is the means in which we can become more loving and more holy. Let it be so.

courtesy of my roommate, Ashliegh Bynum

*P.S. Just kidding! Our house isn’t called the Tree House at all! Well... it hasn’t been approved by all my roommates anyway. We have the only two trees on our block. I just really want to call it the Tree House. So, technically… it’s pending. I just love when houses have names, especially sense we all have different last names here in our Southwest Philly home.