Welcome back again to another podcast of Struggling Well. As I look back on the years that I pastored a church, I got to the place where I stopped asking people why they came to church because the answers were sometimes hilarious, sometimes they caused me to wonder why I did what I did for all those years. but I do think that one of the things that is overlooked sometimes and I think since co some people have just not gotten back into going to church is the power of community.
and that can only be had in my belief is when you see people face to face when you're with them. and Galatians 6, I think, in a roundabout way, talks about community when it says, "Brothers, if anyone is caught in any transgression, you who are spiritual should restore him in the spirit of gentleness. Wa, keep watch on yourself, lest you too be tempted." And then this verse that in verse two, bear one another's burdens and so fulfill the law of Christ. To bear one another's burdens, that's a picture of community at work. And the law of Christ, quite simply, is that we're to love one another. And so, how do I do that? Well, I do that by helping to share in someone else's struggles in a way that helps relieve that and helps lessen the burden and the load that they carry.
You know, I think that the aftermath of the pandemic and lots of things have caused, like you said earlier, Jimmy, has caused have caused a lot of people to stay home. and they're listening online. They're listening to different pastors and, you know, they're being fed sort of, I'm going to say. but I think the greatest sadness is the lack of community and the lack of iron sharpening iron and people being around each other. Like if you're at home now there, please hear me. There are some of you that for health reasons and other reasons, maybe transportation, I don't know what, but you are home and you are homebound and God will speak and teach and guide you in that place. But if you have enough health that you can go to the grocery store and you can go to the mall, then maybe throw in go to church because what will happen is not only will you be taught and encouraged by the preaching of your pastor, the music, maybe the music will move your heart also But there will be people around you that you'll get to know if you haven't already, who will begin to inquire and be curious about your life, hopefully in good ways, and you the same with them to encourage them and spur them on for good. but we can't do that alone.
Yeah. And that's and I think that's one of the things that the enemy uses to be able to bring discouragement into us is when it says in later on in that chapter, he when we don't reach out to one another. Each one will have to bear his own load. and I think that the enemy uses that sense of aloneeness as a discouragement to heap on us more than we need to carry by ourselves. And it's a simple thing in some ways to help bear somebody else's burden. It doesn't say that I remove it's like a backpack. I don't take the entire backpack off of somebody else's back. I may lighten the load so that I share in it so that together we can achieve something that is fulfilling the law of Christ which is to love one another.
You know, I'm it makes me think about and I hope I'm not making a big theological leap here, but when Paul is in a bad way and he says to the church, brothers, I don't want you to be unaware,
right?
And he was going through all the different emotions that he shared and the difficulty the sharing of that is I want you to know, pray for me, but I also need you to help carry me. And we can carry one another. And the telling of our burdens is also we're designed for community to talk, to speak to one another, to encourage each other in the word, to point out places in the word, and it's hard to do that if you have isolated yourself.
Yeah. And I think that what you said, Suzi, in passing there is such a key thing. We think of sharing somebody's burdens by tangibly helping out with financial needs or tangibly providing food and all those things are true but in sharing someone else's burden it begins with prayer
and when Paul says that in 2 Corinthians chapter 1 what you referenced it is so that people might be praying for him and I think one of the ways that we help bear the burdens of another person is when they've shared with us what's going on in their life and in their world. I can join them in prayer. I may not be able to be physically present with them to be able to help bear their burdens in a physical tangible way, but I can when I know what's going on, I can pray for them. And I pray that God would work in their situation and provide for them what they need.
And in keeping with that, I think one of the benefits of being in community, of being at a place of worship where you're being taught is that and I sort of mentioned this before, but there's something in the telling of your story,
right?
which releases some of that burden. And also I need to be around people that will tell me the truth about my behavior, that will tell me whether there's a place that is blatantly sinful or that I've become, you know, overly anxious or overly fearful or that I'm dealing with something and they say, Let's think this out loud together. We need one another like that. That remember we serve a trinitarian God and he is in fellowship. They're all in fellowship one with the other. We are to be like that in relating to each other.
Yeah. And so to take those opportunities when they present themselves to help bear someone else's burden to take a rock or two out of their backpack, if you will, will to be responsible to them but not responsible for them. I think there's a big sense in which God's called us in our communities wherever we may find ourselves to do that. And so if you've gotten out of the habit of going to church because well you're still looking back and saying everything because of the pandemic. I encourage you to physically if possible get up and go to church and interact with other members, brothers and sisters of the body of Christ. Christ so that you can not have to go it alone and they don't have to go it alone.
And we have a shout out this week. we want to shout out to Jeff and Joanie and the Pacific Northwest. they are a couple that we met a couple of years ago and really really like them. I mean we like all the people we shout out to, but we really like them and wish that we live closer.
Yep. So you guys have a great day.