We're all in this together..

We're all in this together?? ... What has my life come to?  I am now quoting from High School the Musical??  I can assure you there's not a lot of singing and dancing going on in the real thing these days! :-)

Where am I seeing God at work today?  It's here.  The fact that we're all in this together. I guess that's been my theme this week ... God puts us in families ... but He also built His kingdom, relationally rather than structurally.  We are different.  And we all need each other.

Read this this morning:
"That’s exactly what Jesus did. He didn’t make it easy for himself by avoiding people’s troubles, but waded right in and helped out. “I took on the troubles of the troubled,” is the way Scripture puts it. Even if it was written in Scripture long ago, you can be sure it’s written for us. God wants the combination of his steady, constant calling and warm, personal counsel in Scripture to come to characterize us, keeping us alert for whatever he will do next. May our dependably steady and warmly personal God develop maturity in you so that you get along with each other as well as Jesus gets along with us all. Then we’ll be a choir—not our voices only, but our very lives singing in harmony in a stunning anthem to the God and Father of our Master Jesus!" (Romans 15:3-6 MSG)

If we want to follow His lead, then we've got to follow it into others' lives ... into the celebrations, the questions, the tears, the struggles.

This week ... that's where I've seen God.  In the text that encouraged me at just the right time ... in the message from a friend offering prayers and help when they found out one of our students had committed suicide ... in the card that was waiting in my mailbox ... in the BFF who skipped lunch duty with me yesterday just because we could :-)

And this week I've gotten to encourage a friend who lost her job, pray for a friend making big life decisions, make a birthday cake for my favorite Mom, brag on some kids I saw at our conferences ... crisis doesn't always come when it's convenient.  Taking on someone else's struggle ... can cost us a little sleep as well.  But there's nothing better than having lives so woven together that you're no longer sure where one ends and the other begins.  I'm incredibly thankful for those who stand with me, pray for me, encourage me, love me, celebrate me, and make me a better person for it all.  If you're reading this, that's you.  Know I am grateful and you are loved.