What Love Looks Like // loving the stranger // week 3

I don't know where this week went. A few crazy snow-days, a couple days of work, a cold that lasted just six full days and right when I've finished processing + journaling out last weekend's visit to BBC, its the weekend again. I wish I could go visit every Saturday. All I do here in Jersey on the weekends is read, write and listen to music and I would be happy to do that in the presence of community, more than happy to. We aren't made to live in solitude and a two hour drive is a small price to pay for the company of friends. Zach needs time to do all his homework though, I don't want to distract him from his work, and I need to find community a little closer to home for these weekends that he's swamped.

I love my church family here in Jersey. Each week I'm excited to get to see them again and get to know them better but the intense winter weather we have been having has made it necessary to cancel most church gatherings throughout the week for safety reasons. I'm sure that the community I am so homesick for is going to be found in this Body of believers if I can just see them for more than an hour or two on Sunday morning.

I see people -- I mean I'm not a recluse. I live with a sweet family and work with nice women, I interact with cashiers and baristas when I run my errands or get out of the house for a change of scenery. I want the Mathai's to be able to do their own family things as much as possible though and working in the infant room you don't see the other teachers much. I'm introverted and I'm happy to have my own space and keep to myself when I'm at home, occasionally eating dinner at the same time or watching TV with the Mathai's. I love working with my four babies until close and then cleaning up and saying goodbye to the other two closer's at work, teamwork creates professional bonds and a sense of community at work for sure. What I'm missing though is meeting up for coffee with someone, dropping by to pay a friend a visit while they're working, or spending time in someone's home over a casual meal.

When you're lonely like this for community you don't have much to lose. Makes you brave, fearless even. You may even Facebook your Pastor's wife and invite yourself over to spend time with her and Pastor. She may even welcome you to do just that but take it up a notch and offer to pick you up at your house and take you out to dinner with them on a Saturday night. You may cry, even if you aren't much of a cryer, from the relief that such sweetness brings your soul. And I did.