It’s an easy thing to do, to put your faith in people. 

We are social creatures after all. Built for community and relationship. Constantly seeking out connections with others as a way to fill a need or cope with things that we’d rather not face. We even do it without thinking. We float along slowly, building our foundations on the shoulders of others and when, inevitably, they crack, or fall, or disappear from our lives, we find ourselves shattered, unable to find where to begin to pick up the pieces. 

When that person fails, or leaves or is ripped from us what do we do? We seek solace in another person who will ultimately be unable to provide what it is that we are truly looking for. 

I notice myself doing this unconsciously. Stumbling around like a mindless zombie seeking out the living only to sustain my own being for a little while longer. 

Relationship isn’t the enemy. This isn’t a call for lives of solitude and seclusion. God created us for relationship. First and foremost with him, and then with other people. It’s why when Jesus was asked what the greatest commandment was, he gave this answer: 

‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ – Matthew 22:37-39

I have been in a community with other people that have loved me well and have lived out these Greatest Commandments as though it were as natural as an exhale. They continue to love me this way and continue to point me, not ever back to themselves, but to the One who sustains all of life and its relationships. 

My little church family has looked different over the past few years we’ve been together. There were people that began the journey with us three years ago that if you had asked if I thought they would still be around in 2019, I would emphatically have answered “Yes”. But life and God’s call come more unexpectedly than we ever can imagine and even when it’s not the direction we want or think we would have gone, we would be amiss to ignore it. 

These shifts in our community have been difficult. Tears fell and confusion set in like a thick morning fog.  And yet, this community has worked harder and loved well and entered deeper into relationship with one another – all because God is still God and He never changes. The people that have moved on will remain essential to the fabric that has created the community that exists today. Our purpose and our call to serve Him through this network of Jesus followers has sustained and we have chosen to continue to answer.  

While nothing on this earth will last, even those relationships we strive for and the people we put our faith in, we move forward each day, directed by the footsteps of a God who never changes, knowing that we are building a kingdom that is eternal. And we trust in a Creator and Savior who is ultimately in control and guiding us each step of the way, as difficult as those steps might be to take and as painful as it is to let go. We fix our eyes on Jesus.