Living together . . . now that I have your attention . . . Wednesday past our official new Lifegroups started meeting again. I was really excited about this new group, excited and a little scared.
I was thinking about the time when Noah was loading up the ark. All the animals entered the ark and lived together for almost a year. They shared their provisions and their space; they grew their families and shared their lives. I wonder if the smaller animals were ever intimidated by the larger ones or the younger by the older.
My former lifegroup met together several times over the summer. It wasn’t easy for us to get to know each other in the beginning; we were so different and yet so very much the same. Trust was an issue that had to work itself out by stepping into the ark together. And it did. We became very close. But towards the end of this summer (yeah, it’s been over for weeks in Canada), God spoke to my heart; “You’re getting too comfortable.”
Over the last year or so He’s been wrecking my heart for the younger generation. I felt called to bring together a small group of women – some in their forties and some in their twenties. The vision was that the older generation would be the Aarons and Hurs surrounding the younger women - holding up their arms while they answer their callings and fight on the battlefield. But I felt like a little mouse would have felt sitting beside the elephant on the ark – why would they want to spend time with me? What do I have to offer them? Wouldn’t they rather be around someone who’s younger and cool?
So what changed? I was wrecked to a greater extent than the measure of my fear. There is a generation coming, a generation already here, that needs – now more than ever – to be supported. They are the ones who are going to rock this world and they need back-up.
Each generation has something to offer the other, whether it’s the generation ahead of them or behind them. We are part of the same world, facing the same issues, fighting the same battles. We are called to be parts of One Body working together in unity, doing life together, living together. That is music to His ears. THAT is the best kind of worship. That is LOVE.
“As long as Moses held up his hands, the Israelites were winning, but whenever he lowered his hands, the Amalekites were winning. When Moses’ hands grew tired, they took a stone and put it under him and he sat on it. Aaron and Hur held his hands up – one on one side, one on the other – so that his hands remained steady till sunset. So Joshua overcame the Amalekite army with the sword,” Exodus 17:10-13.
Are you holding up someone’s hands?
