Community.

Community.  

We need those people in our lives who center us, who hold us together, who laugh and cry with us.  

We're not meant to be here on our own.  We're not meant to isolate ourselves.  We're not meant to spend life without a community.  

We are social creatures.  We need interaction.  We cannot be solely dependent on ourselves. 

I tend to describe myself as independent and self-sufficient.  I tend to feel like I can do it all by myself--especially because I can't trust anyone to do it for me (or better).  

These past few months I've learned over and over and over again that I cannot do it all by myself.  And this pride I carry around is not healthy or realistic.  It's simply a mask I've created to protect myself.  

To admit failure is unacceptable.  

To admit that I was wrong is painful.  

To admit that I fail daily is shameful.  

He views my mistakes and sins and wrongs as equal.  I tend to put them on the sliding scale of what is wrong--but not as wrong as this, that, or what he or she does/did.  I am forgiven, and yet I forget that my pride and worry and shame and boasting have been erased.  

The price has been paid.  The blood has been shed.  

There is redemption at the cross.  

There is grace at the cross. 

There is healing at the cross.

There is death at the cross. 

And there is life at the cross. 

And as long as I am with Him (for He is always with me), there will always be community.