Externally Processing My Way Through Life

I love reading Acts and learning about what the church looked like at the beginning, before it became all institutionalized. I love the grass roots feel of it, and how no matter what any one needed, the church as a whole pitched in to take care of them. There is also a part of my heart that longs for this type of setup, knowing deep down that this is really how it's supposed to be. Wanting to be a part of something like that, but admittedly, not thinking it was possible.

My mind is beginning to be changed. Through our small group. I think if the church is to get back to the grass roots feel, this is the most likely form for it to take.

Our small group is great, there are so many ways I can see how God completely orchestrated the coming together of our group. It's been really neat for us since one family lives just up the street from us. They have a son, Joshua who is 2 months older than Josh and he is Josh's best friend. They will go to the same preschool next fall, and eventually go to the same elementary school. It's great that Josh has someone to play with all the time, and someone who will help ease some of the big transitions he's coming up on.

Two weekends ago, Chris had been talking to Steve (small group, Joshua's dad) about some of the problems with our Honda. He loves to work on cars, and offered to come look at it. He spent a couple of hours of his Saturday afternoon playing with our car.

This weekend, we needed to get some mulch, and they have a truck, Steve took Chris to go get mulch, and the proceeded to help us spread it all out. That night, they were needed help moving some things, so Chris headed up there to help out. This Monday was his wife, Claudia's birthday and they had made a cake for her (I may have played a small role in recipe supplication), they had leftovers and brought some down to us. This weekend Chris is headed over to their house to help them with their mulch.

We found out one of the other couples in our small group had their septic system back up into their house this weekend, damaging most of their main floor, and requiring extensive repairs. Within 48 hours, everyone from our group had either called or emailed checking on them to see if they needed anything, or there was anything we could do.

I'm so impressed by our groups servant hearts.

I feel blessed to be a part of this group, but even more so blessed by getting to see the way God really created the church to interact with one another being lived out right before me.

You need to keep in mind that we are all people with very different backgrounds and upbringings, some didn't grow up in the church, and those of us that did are from all different denominations. There is almost a 20 year age gap from oldest to youngest in our group. Some people have been married almost 10 years, and some only 2. All this to say, that we aren't a group of people that would probably tend to gravitate towards each other on our own, what brings us together, and what we all have in common is Christ.

I never really thought I would get to see something comparable to the Acts church. Not only do I get to see that being lived out, but I get to be a part of it. How cool is that?