Last month was a busy and emotional month for me. March is brain injury awareness month, a community I was unexpectedly forced into over 26 years ago when I had a life-altering accident during college. I needed more than a church clap.
Before my accident I lived for myself, I found my worth in my selfish and sinful desires. My accident meant I had to leave my old lifestyle behind. Although my body was broken, my spirit and soul were healed eternally thanks to a big God.
For almost 25 years, I wanted to hide my disability, unless I was around others within the disabled community. A little over 10 years ago I received social and financial help from my state’s brain injury trust fund. Again, I was thrust into a community I honestly didn’t want to be part of.
However, my broken brain and body will never be totally healed in this life—it will never be that easy for me. Last year I was inspired to write an article to talk about what living with a brain injury is like and how others can help persons with brain injuries or learning deficits. Life is hard and we each must face our own battles every day.
In March, I learned at the article was a finalist in a Christian writing competition. I have been fortunate to be welcomed into two supportive and caring communities; the blessing of the brain injury community has brought me to where I am in life now.
Families are close-knit communities of people who trust one another, despite their differences. Community is one of the most common ways God grows us. Can you feel it? Families are an institution of our God; this community model has been around since the beginning of time, because it is the way of our Lord.
The Holy Trinity (God the Father, Spirit, and Son); although each is different, they abide together in the first community. When God created the world, he placed another community or family in the garden and God told them to fill the planet with other image bearers; of course, Satan had to attack that family.
Later God raised up another community, a nation, unto Himself, put your hands up! For thousands of years, God’s people faced trials and bondage as they waited for the long-awaited Messiah to bring them back together.
Once Jesus arrived, He established another community with His Disciples, and again the command is given to go into the world and make more and merge bearers of God, a community that glorifies and produces community(Matthew 28:16-20!)
Community is an institution created by God to produce, equip, and encourage other image-bearers of God. The church was never called to be a great kingdom or earthly power. The institution’s purpose is to fulfill God’s will, not our selfish desires or bring temporary comfort.
Our enemy Satan knows this and has created his own unholy community: Satan, the flesh, and the world. This unholy community has been deceiving God’s people since Adam and Eve in the garden and the world has been broken ever since.
Last year I made the tough decision to leave my church family of nearly a decade because their beliefs had become selfish, corrupted, and unchristian. They lost my trust when they put their selfish beliefs before the Christian faith.
What most of us Christians often forget is that we are all sinners saved by grace alone and none of us can boast we did it. Therapist Morton Kelsey wisely observed that Christians aren’t perfect. So who are we to throw stones at others who don’t believe as we do? Jesus rebuked both his Disciples and the Pharisees for doing that very thing (Luke 18:9-14, John 8:1-8.)
The difference between Jesus and the Pharisees is He knew they were sinners, because only He was not. And His treatment of the woman caught in adultery showed what godly love is. We celebrate Easter because God has always known mankind needed to be saved from itself, Satan, and a broken world.
The world is tough and hurts people, we all need a Savior to bring harmony! All who believe may be a part of this community—together we are family!
3 Comments
We live in a world that is all about the individual, but God meant for us to be in relationship with Him and the church family. Good reminder!
God created the institution of family with husbands, wives, and children. He makes us part of His family through the blood of Christ. Family is what God is all about.
You’ve done a great job contrasting God’s creation of family and Satan’s cheap imitation. I’m so thankful God continues to use your accident for His glory!