I just submitted my final assignment for my first year of seminary. (!!!) I know. I don’t know how I got here either.
But as I walked through my day today, I was blown away as I realized just how many people have stood alongside me to carry me through this year. I have had friends whose house is a place of refuge, where I am fed good food and I can get away from the stress of campus for a time. I have friends who let me hold and play with their children- or even hire me to play with their kids, because they know I am a broke student (then let me use their laundry and Wi-Fi while I’m “on the clock”)! My mom has willingly responded to my request for her to be on “high alert” that day when I am down to the wire and hope she’ll be free to proof-read my paper – and sent it back within 20 minutes. One friend blew me away when she called to bring her all my nasty laundry so she could wash it, knowing I really should have clean clothes for the next day but I was too busy and stressed to do my laundry myself.
I have had community to text when an assignment has got me down or when life seems to be too much. My grandma answers her phone every time I call and is a prayer warrior like few I know. My parents support me in basically every way. My community has spoken truth into my fears and called out the inner lies I believe for what they truly are. They believe in me more fiercely than I believe in myself.
I wrote the above as I finished the last week of my first year of seminary. I was, an am, struck by a deep realization of the truth that my community has pulled me through seminary. I went to support a number of my friends at seminary graduation at the end of the year and heard this truth echoed in their stories: “thanks to my parents,” “thanks to my spouse,” “thanks to my friends,” “I would not be here without you,” and “you have sacrificed as much as, or more than, I have.”
The more amazing realization is that this is the Church: these moments when our friends give as much as we do for our calling. When my friend gives of herself to do my laundry to enable me to pursue my calling in seminary, that is the Church.
But these images of the Church actually being the Church don’t stop there. Because being the church doesn’t only mean giving; it also means receiving. During this past season, the Church has been the Church because they have allowed me to minister to them, too. At the same time that those around me have called out the lies I am believing, they have allowed me to speak truth to their lies, too. While I have needed them to believe in me, I have been allowed to believe in them. The Church is not the Church if she is only willing to give. Christlike humility also means allowing others to see our brokenness and allowing others to stand with us.
My friends have been the Church when they let me clean their bathroom because they are new parents and just need some help. My friends are the Church when they share their hurts and let others (even me) love them in the very place where they are most hurting. My friends are the church when they acknowledge that their new marriage is as work as much as it is joy. Together, my friends and I have celebrated, and we have lamented. We have played in life’s sun and hunkered down in life’s wind.
Yes, the Church is more than these things – She is so much more! But she will never be less than these things. This is the Church. This is the body of Christ, in all her scars and beauty, coming around each other. This is the Bride putting those she loves before herself, willing to pay the cost of friendship, love, and calling.