"We are family...all brothers, sisters, and me!" Family is an amazing thing. There is such an unwavering commitment to those in our families. We would do almost any thing to see our family members succeed in life. Take for example recently my fathers commitment to me. I needed his help with a major decision I was going to make. Only this decision was in Loudonville, OH. It was just under a 2 hour drive for me and a 3 hour drive for my dad. He was not going to benefit one bit from helping me out. He was getting nothing out of this for himself and he even was going to have to pay for his own gas and rearrange his schedule that day. He did all of that. What a commitment on his part. That wasn't the half of it though...
I arrived to the spot in Loudonville well before my dad got there. I assessed the situation and realized that I had made a huge mistake and error in judgement. What I was looking for was not what I saw when I got there. I had to call my dad on the phone and tell him not to bother coming the rest of the way. However he was already in the neighborhood. He had driven three hours for nothing...and now had to drive back home for three hours for nothing. I felt terrible and sick to my stomach that my dad did all this for nothing. However he was very gracious and told me not to worry about it a hundred times. The truth is that he didn't do all that for nothing that day...he did it for his son.
The truth is when you are family no request or need is out of reach. Family always tends to rally around one another in times of need. Sadly though many people did not grow up in this kind of family atmosphere as I have. Some of you have lived through broken models with broken relationships, and ultimately broken hearts. The Goodnews however is that God wants to provide you with a Spiritual family in Christian community. Being in a small group is less about studying good things and getting lots of knowledge then it is about building deep relationships and creating a spiritual family that has one another's back.
We all need a spiritual family...that's what the local church is. A community of believers that want to be our family. However it is not just enough to attend worship on Sunday's. We need to get to know a smaller group of people and learn to love one another. These then are the people that we will grow in family love with and go to bat for each other. These are the people we might drive 6 hours for, wait in a hospital waiting room with, help them clean up in their home after a disaster strikes. They are your family. Do you have a spiritual family? If not, you only have your self to blame. All you have to do is try a small group. It's up to you. Your family awaits...and maybe you too can sing, "We are family...all my brothers, sisters, and me."
In Community with you,
Your Dreaming Pastor
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