Staying Together

After attending two weddings on Saturday and then driving 7 hours back and forth to Dallas on Sunday for our niece's graduation, I've been reflecting on the power of long-term relationships. It was so cool to see the many Highland people attending both weddings -- for Adam Lott and Cami Porche, who grew up at Highland. We were then blessed to attend the graduation at Dallas Christian for Stepani Hutcheson, the youngest daughter of Susan's sister, Vanette. Afterwards we gathered at Vanette's house with lots of family members and a scrumptious meal from Pappasito's.

When you stay together in a nuclear family, extended family or local church, you reap so many benefits. You learn from the Lord how to forgive one another and receive forgiveness for how you hurt others you love. You see Christ at work through long-term commitments. The Holy Spirit refines us and transforms us into the image of Jesus in the rough and tumble world of shared joys, working through conflicts and mutual encouragement.

The idea of staying together especially has been on my heart lately because of some conflict we had to work through last week at the Service Center. We made some major changes in our receiving room which led to a bit of conflict, hurt feelings and misunderstandings. But praise be to the Lord, He is helping us work through these changes and stay together in love. And I believe we're becoming stronger after passing through this storm.

All of this makes me think of one line from Rick Warren's Purpose Driven Life. He stated that in a community of faith, we're going to inevitably hurt one another and sin against each other -- at times in unintentional ways. That's why we need to continue to forgive each other.

What a blessing that we are not only commanded by Jesus to continually love and forgive each other, but also promised the power of the Holy Spirit Who enables us to live this life of love.

And just think of how staying together in a Christian community -- even though we don't always agree and keep offending or being offended -- displays the beauty of our Savior's love.

Jim