Tag: community

live life in community

Karla Lees

For many years, I have felt on the outside looking in… maybe you too can relate.

There have been seasons where I was missing having close sisters. That feeling where you long for family beyond the blessings you already have, Where my heart felt lonely despite a loving hubby, great kids, friends & family.

Heart sisters.

And I remember one day praying to Him, and ripping this longing from my heart & offering it to Him.

We were never meant to walk alone.

We are designed for community.

Community for me means walking along side those who share your passion & calling, who will give you a hand up on the hard days, and encourage you to unfurl the dreams yet to fly deep within.

live life in community (1)

We were meant to live life in community, just as our Father, Jesus and Holy Spirit do!

There are three elements of community which God has been revealing to me of late.

1. Come.

If you don’t show up, it isn’t community. Community gathers regardless of feelings, because it knows we are better together than on our own. Where we answer the invitation God offers to us all, to come and be. Be fully present, as you are.

2. Commune.

Also known as family. Living real lives together. Accepting us each as works in progress, on a journey towards wholeness:

  • Encouraging one another as we need it
  • Reminding one another to draw closer to Him and our loved ones
  • Giving our best at all times
  • Using our gifts for His glory
  • Praying over & for each other when needs arise
  • Being helping hands when we can meet another’s need
  • Crying together, sharing our brokenness
  • Offering one another a safe place to rest and be refreshed when we are weary

3. Unity.

When we gather with common purpose, somehow our unity makes us stronger, and greater than when we stand alone. I believe this is the secret to how God is which we gloss over in its complexity: God is three, yet one. Each fully their own person, yet united as One.

In community, we become the one He intended us to be.

Will community always be amazing? Nope. There will be hard times when our individuality rears its voice and cries out for attention, when we allow our unhealed places & pain to speak first.

Is community worth it? Always. There will be blessings you cannot yet imagine when we press in and dig deep together.

For me, community involves sisterhood. I have been so blessed with several heart sisters to live daily life with in the community I live in, here in Ontario. I don’t want to imagine life without them. They bless me more than they know.

But there was still an empty space left in my heart, a longing for more which was yet to come…which I believe we all have deep within.

God led our family to a new home church, and once we worked through our grief of missing where we had been, we found ourselves enveloped in the community He planned for us. Our family, as both a unit & individually, is the stronger & healthier because of it. Our church is intentional about loving God and loving people, and becoming family. Family is always welcome, warts and all.

He led me to Remade, and Beth Kinder. Beth & I connected, and before I knew it, I had the close sisters my heart had been longing for through their online community. Crossing country borders, denomination, age, race & status. Ministering, laughing, crying, writing, equipping, challenging, living life together despite the mileage that separates us. And that last longing was put to rest when I was welcomed in, and asked to join this community. Although Remade has morphed into a new season, I am still heart connected with the lovely sisters I met through that time of ministering together.

As I have followed His leading, He has blessed me with new friendships, and reawakened a few dreams through growing deeper in the communities He is planting me in.

Covid led to me putting a few former learned skill back into action, as I began to lead an online women’s Facebook group, helping sisters stay & feel connected despite lockdowns, through worship, bible study, prayer and sharing both the laughter & tears as we get to know each other.

God can unite us beyond our expectations when we follow His lead.

Community is His idea, the expression of how He lives life together as three in one.

Come, commune with Him & become one. This is the core of community, connected & grounded to God first.

Ask Him to draw you closer to the community He has for you here on earth.

Your best ‘you’ comes to life in the community where He waits to make it possible.

If you are intrigued by the concept of an online community, ask God to lead you to the One He has for you. Feel free to visit my connect page for ways to connect with my online community, for there is always room for one more!

If you too live in Canada, and long to meet with other Christians in the larger church community, Gather Women is crossing Canada and meeting provincially.

If you too have been lonely for the deeper authenticity and support of community, don’t allow your lack to drive you. Invite Holy Spirit to open your eyes to where He wants you to gather, connect and live in community.

community: family by choice

Karla Lees

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I am very blessed in community.

I know several people who feel like they are all alone in their circumstances or situations, and the reality is: often it’s due to your choices.

We don’t always reach out to show our need nor vulnerability when we can, so we essentially build a wall to block out connection when everything within us may be craving it.

Connection begins with a choice to be vulnerable, and let someone in.

Community happens when hearts are knit together through regular connection.

Family occurs when God blesses community with a love which can only come through weathering the storms arm in arm, knowing your family has your back and won’t leave you on your own.

Jesus modeled this well while He walked among us.

He carried an atmosphere of invitation to those who were outcast and lonely in society, and they came.

The disciples are a perfect example of choosing to connect, seeing what someone is capable of beyond their current situation, becoming community through shared living, and becoming family by choice.

God deliberately chooses to connect with each of us.  He wants us to live in close community with Him, Abba Jesus Holy Spirit.  He wants you to walk knowing you are already in His forever family, even if we aren’t physically there yet.

God didn’t choose those we would automatically assume would be on the inside.

For His community is family by His choice.

●Cain, marked with His divine protection despite his crime.

●Jacob, wrestling with God after stealing his brother’s birthright.

●Saul, more concerned with following his fears than God’s leading.

●David, lacking strong self control over his attraction to women.

●Solomon, who tried everything under the sun to come to the realization that without God, all is futile.

●Paul, murderer of the faithful.

●Moses, the stutterer.

And just so we keep it real, there were also women He chose to include in His community which make us sit up and pay attention:

○Sarai, who laughed off the Promise to come.

○Hagar, who took off when things got tough.

○Pilate’s Roman wife, who had dreams of the Jewish Messiah.

○Elizabeth, barren for so long she must have given up hope of a child, chosen to bear the forerunner to the Messiah. (And her priest husband ●Zachariah, struck dumb when he doubted the angel delivering God’s Good News, in the Holy of Holies!)

○Tamar, who tricked her father-in-law to do the right thing but broke the law to do so.

○The Samaritan woman at the well, with her colourful history, spreading the word about living water.

All of these people are and were part of His story through the family He chose to create.

And we are included.

We have the opportunity to build community and family wherever we are,  for we carry God with us.

The Father who is just waiting for us to come near and join the family.

The Son who is just waiting to connect with us and not only show us who we truly are but help us become whole.

The Holy Spirit who draws us into community, helping us to see beyond our natural sight the Kingdom He is shaping about us.

Community is family by choice.

It has always been God’s choice to choose you.

It is your choice to accept the invitation of life long family and beyond which He has always offered, or stand alone on your own two feet.

Only you can make the decision to move into connection, to stay isolated in your current situation.

Community is family by choice.

Kingdom work

Karla Lees

When I go to work, I’m going to the Kingdom. I’m not working for the King, I’m working with the King. The Kingdom is not restrained to the walls of the Church. -Kris Vallotton

Many days, I used to drag myself to work.

But its not that I don’t love my jobs, for I do.

Rather its because I wasn’t seeing the bigger perspective about work in general.

Years ago, when in bible college, I dreamed of working in a church. One professor made a comment about how I was too radical to be church acceptable staff material, and my soul took on the weight of that barb.  Not knowing any better at the time, I let my dream of being on church staff fly away into my lost dreams pile.

Fast forward to more recent years.  Spending more time in the Word, I realized that the church in Acts seemed to do more “church-like” Kingdom work outside of the walls of the church buildings, right in the communities, wherever they were.

Immediately my eyes were opened to the reality that church work, Kingdom work, was never meant to be limited inside the walls of a building.

Kingdom work was always intended to be carried within the heart of everyone in the Kingdom, and shared with those who need to hear the Good News that they are welcome in His Kingdom.

  • The Kingdom is within me, for I am His.
  • The Kingdom walks with me, for the King is with me wherever I go.
  • I work with the King, wherever I work
  • All my work matters for His Kingdom when I do it for His Kingdom come and His glory.
  • When I am aligned with His heart for those around me, I am doing Kingdom work.

And I don’t need to be church staff, or in a church building to do so.

I only need to be lead by Holy Spirit, following Jesus’ example and allowing my heart to beat with my Abba’s to do Kingdom work.

For wherever I am, the Kingdom is too.

And the same is true for you!
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love in action

Karla Lees

Agree with each other, love each other, be deep-spirited friends. Don’t push your way to the front; don’t sweet-talk your way to the top. Put yourself aside, and help others get ahead. Don’t be obsessed with getting your own advantage. Forget yourselves long enough to lend a helping hand.

–Philippians 2:2-4 MSG

Living in community can be rough at times.  And God knew this.

These verses on their own capture how to help make successful community. Putting one another’s needs ahead of ours, seeking agreement, helping others fulfill their dreams, actively loving one another.

But these verses, although they contain the action steps we are to take for healthy, united community, don’t explain the why.

The first verse of Phillipians 2 does.

If you’ve gotten anything at all out of following Christ, if His love has made any difference in your life, if being in a community of the Spirit means anything to you, if you have a heart, if you care— then do me a favor:

Because of what God has given us, His love. 

Because of the family we are now a part of, His.

Because He is awakening in us a care for  others from His heart.

Because of what our laid it all down Jesus has done for us, we are to likewise lay ourselves down for others.

There are times when we can pick verses out of the Word, examine them closely and still miss the point, if we aren’t allowing Holy Spirit to heighten our awareness of what wisdom He wants us to learn when we study it.

The Bible isn’t just a collection of writings spanning hundreds of years and dozens of authors.

It is a living Word.  God Himself inspired it through listening hearts. God Himself collected it through willing hands.  God Himself is contained within it, and knows what we need to be fed each time we pick it up and invited Him to do so.

For we are not just in community with people, but with God Himself!

May He deepen your awareness of how to live a life of community which blesses Him, those around you and yourself as you follow His lead.

Love.
Love deeply.
Love actively.
Love completely.
Love sacrificially.
Love as He leads.

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comfort in community

Karla Lees

Hi chicks! (that’s what I call my girlfriends in Christ) If you are a bro, welcome.

I know some of you are single, separated, divorced or in a hard place in your marriages.  I know it can and does hurt. I know sometimes you feel you can’t ask people to pray for your spouse, for reconciliation and/or healing.  For you to become whole when you feel ripped apart.

Please do.

Being single does not mean God has abandoned you.  It does not mean His plans for you are always to be without a partner to love beside you on this earth.  He may draw you so deep into Him that you will sense Him as your partner through it all.

You are beloved just as you are, whether you are single, married, divorced, separated, a mom or not. God adores you, and will not leave you or fail to give you hope in your heart’s cry.

Please know its okay to be hurting and say so. We need to be able to be real with one another in the safety of supportive relationship.

I will caution you. Not everyone else believes as you do. Because we are all so different, we may need to share where you are at by starting with “This is where my heart is at. I am inviting you to pray for me as I have requested. I am not asking for answers, but comfort in community.”

Coz we don’t need to speak the answers to support one another, sisters & brothers. 

We need to leave the answers in His hands to be spoken in His timing to our hearts.

Sometimes we just need to know we have been heard, accepted for where we are at, and loved in that moment.

We all need to know we are not alone, and loved as we are. We were meant to find comfort in community.

I pray we will all learn to be better keepers of one another’s deepest longings when they are shared, and continue to point one another to God as we love up on each other right where we are at.

If you are in a state of singleness, and hurting over it, please hear you are not alone.

My suggested best to-do list when you are single, not by choice?

1. Spend more time with God than ever before in prayer, worship and His Word. Press in to Him for your needs, all of them. Ask Him to bring the right people into your life to be part of….

2.  Put together your support group: of sisters (brothers if you are a guy) in Christ, health professionals if you need them, and people who can give you wise counsel. 

3. Allow yourself to be real, but not wallow in your lowest points. 

4. Practice being positive. Speak His Promises out loud over your life.

5. Believe He has good plans for you and they will come to pass, even if you can’t see beyond the pain of today.

6. Remember you are never alone. Stop isolating yourself. Make sure you to be in contact with someone in your support group every day.

Keep pursuing health for yourself in the midst of your hard season. How you make it through can impact you for the better if you seek Him, surround yourself with support and always remember you are not alone.

I also invite you to pop by Whole Magazine to be encouraged as you read:
http://www.wholemagazine.org/posts/5-steps-to-getting-over-your-ex

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faith in action

Karla Lees

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For as the body apart from the spirit is dead, so also faith apart from works is dead.  James 2:26

Life cannot exist when the body and the spirit are separated.

Both are needed for life to happen.

Faith without works isn’t alive.
It too is dead.

The spirit may be willing, but if your flesh isn’t following suit, you don’t get it done.

Our faith is to represent the living God we serve.

Everywhere, serving everyone, every moment.

If we are followers of Jesus, we are to do as He did. We are to go everywhere we are lead and serve everyone He asks us to — every opportunity we can.

Faith in action comes alive.

Today, ask Him to awaken your desire to have a living faith which permeates every area of your life.

Let faith arise, and may those around you be blessed as you follow where He leads you to be His hands and feet to all He loves.

This post first appeared as a Drop of Encouragement at Remade Community today.

Community revisited

Karla Lees

Originally posted last spring for my church’s blog, however with the upcoming online Remade Community group kicking off this Monday, I have been revisiting what He has been teaching me about unity, and community. May you too be blessed by seeking greater unity with Him, and entering into deeper community with the Body.

Like the anticipation of the arrival of spring, the Word has been moving, stirring and growing deeper within me in a few areas as of late, but especially His desire for unity.

How good and pleasant it is when God’s people live together in unity!  Psalm 133:1

God is blessed when we live in community.  Even that very word includes both the requirements for healthy community: “come” into “unity.”  When we unite, God releases a blessing upon us as we come together to seek Him in community, for He draws near.

Community isn’t always pretty, but it is His design for us.  I have learned the hard way that sometimes we wound one another, hold back forgiveness or gossip…because we take our eyes off of the One who binds us together, and forget to love another as He has loved us. No holds barred, with no grievances between us:

Bear with each other and forgive whatever grievances you may have against one another. Forgive as the Lord forgave you. And over all these virtues put on love, which binds them all together in perfect unity. Colossians 3:13-14

When we show love to one another as Jesus did for us, while we listen for His leading, we find the differences between us start to mellow into the background, to fade behind His love as the melody uniting us together:

Finally, all of you, live in harmony with one another; be sympathetic, love as family, be compassionate and humble. 1 Peter 3:8

Living in harmony doesn’t mean we always agree, because we are all uniquely wired and gifted, but it means family is more importance than our differences. We work it out with His help, because He desires it:

Make every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace.Ephesians 4:3

As a community, we honor God when we pull together as one. For the One who died for us all is our unifying factor, the commonality which is the basis for our community as a body of believers. When we all use our gifts for His glory, not our own, our unity becomes apparent to those around us. The community at large takes notice when His people live and work together in unity. When peace abounds instead of division and turmoil.  Where we willingly submit to one another out of love, placing the needs of the body above our own.  When we confess to one another our offences and flaws, and find forgiveness, true rest for our souls.

This world is screaming out self-satisfaction, for life to be all about ‘me.’ When we gather in unity to worship God, following His way and not our own, His peace can be sensed in our communities.  Not only in each of us as individuals, but in our collective focus on Him.  As our prayers arise to Him, asking for Him to make us one, He releases a fresh wind of His presence, and community.

May God continue to bind us together, into the One heart at the core of the body, His.

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birds of a feather

Karla Lees

I always related to the ugly duckling as a child, and honestly, still as an adult.

Not because I think I am exceptionally ugly  (surface beauty is in the eye of the beholder…) but because I have always felt on the outside looking in.  A misfit.  A round peg trying to fit in square holes.

I have felt that way at times in my relationships, my jobs, in ministry & at church.

And then in an email that arrived last night, I realized why I didn’t fit with the rest of the lovely ducks in the pond around me.

I’m a songbird. 🙂

Silly goose!

Laughter aside, I was trying to make myself fit into a mold I was never designed to fit.

I am both a trailblazer and a companion in my giftings.  A mentor, leader & supporter all rolled into one.

I tend to flock with the other birds also seeking their right fit.

And that is okay with God.

Coz its how He designed me.

With that email yesterday?

I realized that I have four fellow chicks I am meant to flock with. To support when one moves into the lead, to be alongside to help break the winds and offer relief when needed.  To all jointly pull in one direction, yet as individuals each doing our part.

That I am not alone.

Just as the foremost goose in the front of the flock rotates when their wings get tired, I am meant to be part of a team, not on my own.

And like the other geese, we all have separate backgrounds & nests which make us uniquely qualified to separately share,  becoming amplified when we join as the Bride to share His Words & Love to the beloved who don’t yet know the depths of His heart.

He makes us somehow even more when we are together than our sole efforts on our own.

We live in five different areas over a few time zones. Some have older kids, some younger.  A few have obvious scars, others are more hidden.

We all have an intentional pursuit of His Presence, insatiable desire for His Word and longing to hear His voice over all.

Like geese, we know we need God to be the strength allowing us to fly despite the headwinds against us.  We know we were meant to be united in fellowship, tight flock formation despite our differences.

We may not always be completely understood in our home ponds, but as birds of a feather united together for His Kingdom, we are being blessed.

My desire is for God to help each of us find our main voice as daughters of the King, writing for His Kingdom and His glory.

When God unites our hearts, we can’t wait to flock together. 🙂

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PS. I am blessed to have both local flocks of chicks, and a international flock.  This post specifically refers to my fellow writing chicks: Beth, Brandi, Kate, Jaime.

May we become the Song He longs for us to sing in harmony for His glory.

PPS. My “local” flock of chicks know how much I value & appreciate their love through the swells, valleys & storms. I regularly try to let them know how much I treasure them, more than words, and flock together whenever we can. You know who you are, sisters! xo

this chord of three strands

Karla Lees

Today is my 22nd wedding anniversary.

I have now been married for just under half my life 🙂

I have learned two key lessons, mostly the hard way, over the two + decades we have been a couple.  They are key because without them, the song of our marriage quickly turns into dischord, and things remain off kilter until they are added back into the mix.

It doesn’t take two to make a marriage work.

It takes God, & community.  

The two keys to making sure you have all the resources & support you might need, because you will need them.

1. God:

When God is interwoven into your marriage, you become bound together beyond the physical, mental & emotional ties we can make on earth.  You become one in spirit.  This was the ultimate design God had for us in marriage, to be united together with Him as He will fully be united with His bride one day soon.  He becomes the strength of your bond, beyond your earthly union.

2. Community:

When you have a community around you to support you, you have help to work through the trials, storms & unexpecteds life can throw at you.  You have care for when you are wounded, direction when you can’t see God through the storm, and combined wisdom & gifts beyond your own, especially if your support network are believers.

On your own, you can falter.

In community, you have support when the hard times hit. You know you are not alone.

With God, you have His eternal resources within reach, and you can endure beyond whatever tries to pull your marriage apart.  You have protection through the storms. Your spirit knows you are not alone, for He is intimately with you.

My hubby & I have come through many trials & storms, losses & joys.

We have learned community is vital for keeping us grounded, and connected with one another.  We know we are cared for.

But more importantly, we have learned God is essential for keeping us loving one another, and strengthening our bond.  We know we are loved, and can express that love to one another throughout our lifetime together.

Community supports.

God strengthens.

The cord of three strands in the physical realm needs community to flourish.

The cord of three strands in the spiritual realm requires God to grow, deepen and mature into the reflected image of Jesus & His bride.

We can’t have one without the other.

For hubby & i are one, together one strand in the tapestry He is weaving in our lives.

God & community make up the other two strands.

If you too are married, may He grant you and your spouse a deeper revelation of how He wants to be intimately interwoven into the very fabric of your marriage, and become all you need in order for you to stay together.

May you find the melody He desires for your marriage, as you allow Him to write your love song, and allow the community around you to harmonize where it is needed.

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community matters

Karla Lees

Today, I am taking a day off from writing.

I am spending some time allowing my sprained wrist to recover, but also listening to where the Spirit wants me to write next.

Easter hit me with a different impact this year, and I want to soak in the lessons I ahve learns, and make them part of me before moving on.

But because YOU matter, I am posting about community.

How unity is such a part of God’s heart for His people.

Because He himself dies to bring us back to Him, to be reUNITED with Him.

To become one with Him, through him, in Him.

You can read this post in its entirety at my church’s blog:

http://auroracornerstone.ca/blog

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