Community

Sometimes community is hard.  Downright hard.  Sometimes I feel like crawling in a hole with my family of 5 and shutting out the hard, scary, unpredictable world.  I love my people.  The people God has blessed me with.  But too often I wear my heart on my sleeve and my expectations high and nothing can come from that except a big ugly mess. So what do you do?  When the world is calling.  When you've been invited out of your space into a slightly bigger place, a place with the possibility that you might be stretched and uncomfortable and vulnerable.  What do you do?
You go.  You go because it's right.  You tuck your bad attitude into the back pocket of your jeans.  You bite your tongue when the sarcasm gets too thick in your mind.  You look around the room at the people that God has placed in your life for this season and hopefully the next and you breathe in deep.  You sit back and watch as your children join ranks with a larger than hoped for church youth choir and you blink back the tears when you hear their small voices sing "I Am Blessed" with the simplest of words and greatest of message. You stumble to the altar with a friend whose heart is still broken and you cry out to God to give joy.  Joy only He can give. 
And you breathe.  You inhale deeply so that more of His grace can fill you up.  Always more of His grace.