New Eyes

I didn't blog about yesterday's reverb because I had the toughest time deciding how to respond to it.  The prompt was: Healing. What healed you this year? Was it sudden, or a drip-by-drip evolution? How would you like to be healed in 2011?  I really struggled to come up with a genuine response because, honestly, 2010 was an awesome year that was packed to the brim with joyful, productive activity.  If I had been asked in 2008 or 2009 what I had been healed from I would have had some really meaningful thoughts, but this year has just been peaceful and exciting.


  I do think, though, that in the past year the Lord has dissolved some small callouses that had developed on my heart.  After attending JBU for 7 years (no worries, I did get two degrees out of it) and being deeply immersed in a church culture that greatly values small groups, my eyes had started to glaze over any time I heard the word "community".  (For anyone reading this blog who didn't attend JBU, community was probably the most frequently spoken word on campus).  I've known what it is like to be without community - I struggled all through high school, when we moved to a new state, to find the same close-knit encouragement I had known in the community where I grew up.  I agonized one summer in the beauty of N. Ireland because I didn't really have a community with whom I could enjoy my adventures.  However, the past decade of SATURATION in more opportunities to commune with folks than I know what to do with has diminished my appreciation for what I have.
  2010 has brought, as I have mentioned in other posts, a wonderful community group.  God has used the, now dear, friends in this group to give me new eyes for community.  I'm not even sure what it is about this group - we have friends we absolutely treasure and who are extremely important to us outside of it - but there is something really special about the 6 couples (plus one two-year-old and one 7-month-old) who meet together weekly.  I remember why community beautiful and a privilege.  I love seeing them each week and am so thankful they know our lives.  I don't know that my eyes were 'healed', per se, but I think they were given a bit of a tune-up this year.