Unbridled Joy in Community

By Diane Mayfield –

I am filled with joy today, filled to overflowing.

I asked God what to write about this month. I presented Him with several options, such as sitting in the hospital waiting room with my dear friend and sister in Christ while her forty-two-year-old daughter underwent breast cancer surgery.

Other options flooded my thoughts as I talked with God. I could write about my girls’ trip to the beach. Six Christ followers talking, laughing, praying and crying with each other over a four day trip. We were brought together by our love for movies and the Savior—not in that order I hope.

A third option was to write about standing with my sister as she goes through the process of ending a twenty-four- year marriage.

One other choice is the joy of planning a wedding shower for a friend I’ve known for thirty-three years. At times she questioned whether she would ever know the joy of her daughter finding a life companion. What an answer to prayer!

Which one of these, Lord, do I write about? Pondering as I often do, I was aware of the feeling of abundant joy and peace in the midst of my quandary. Why? What about all of these options produced such a response?

It’s the joy of Christian community. For years I’ve prayed for a real sense of Christian community, a sense of Christian family. I wanted the real, authentic kind where you are so different, but you love each other anyway. It’s sharing the nitty gritty of daily living life together, not just saying hello or shaking hands on Sunday morning.

What God has given to me now is not because of my children’s activities, though when I was raising my children, I deeply valued those friendships, or my husband’s work or even my work. These are relationships based solely on Jesus. He is the starting point.

What’s so overwhelming is that I never dreamed at this stage of life, an empty nester and grandmother, I’d have the joy of new relationships in Jesus as well as the treasured friendships of years past. I am richly blessed by His gift of this Christian community.

So, whether it’s praying with a small group family enduring a life-altering accident with their grandson or the joy of a much prayed for and highly anticipated wedding, Christian community provides an abundance of joy. It’s a blessing and a privilege to be involved in others’ lives at each turn of the journey.

As I sat in the hospital waiting room at MD Anderson Cancer Center with my dear friend, we ate, we talked, we laughed, we walked and most of all, we just waited. The waiting seemed to last forever. When it was unbearable, we prayed. Then the surgeon came out and said the words we longed to hear. “All went very well. There is no cancer in the lymph nodes.” Then we cried and hugged and rejoiced.

So, today, when I think through all these events, and these are just a few, I am filled with joy. My life is abundant because of the Christian family God has given me. For me it is the richest of blessings

“Thank you, my Lord, for the incomparable gifts of your riches that I experience in this dear Christian family.”