Insta Diaries #5

f you follow me on Instagram - you'll know that I sometimes post mini-blogs in my captions. It's usually whatever I'm feeling in that moment that is bursting to be shared. They aren't always grammatically correct or theologically researched but they're 100% how I feel in that moment. 

---

Yesterday, my friend sent me an email about Harry Potter.

Well - really it was an an encouragement and a challenge but Harry Potter was used as an analogy. And he had a lot of encouraging things to say to me specifically, but then he dropped this Ravenpuff wisdom: We need community to care for us and share with us, give and bless, and be joyous and mournful. We need all of these things and we need each person because each will bring a different attribute of God that we need to be challenged by.

And it’s true. We do need community and we need people who are different who display different attributes of God. Community is vital. I say this as someone who loves to try and do things on their own. But the more I’m challenged by and encouraged by those around me and the more vulnerable I am with them, the more I share my heart and my dreams and my struggles, the more I’ve been able to see of God. I see His glory displayed in the lives of those around me.

So, my encouragement to you, is to surround yourself with community. But not just ones who are like you. Ones who challenge you and see the world differently. And then once you’ve done that - take your community to the broken and the hurting around you. And surround them with Christ’s love. Because that’s what we’ve been called to do. See Matthew 28:18-20.