I believe that this week God has been speaking to me through chapel and the college class at my church. There has been a common theme in this week about what it means to be a Christian. A part of that is being together in community. It means that as Christians we can’t do everything on our own. I feel that God has been speaking to me about this because of what I have recently been going through. As of late, I have had a few things on my mind. One of the things that is on my mind is having a sense of identity and dealing with things from the past. I want answers for why things are the way that they are in life. I think that through this private struggle, God was saying to not do this on your own. That is the thing. We don’t have to struggle on our own. We can share life with each other and help each other out. This past Tuesday in Chapel, there were two guest speakers that talked about their struggles with sex and body image. They pretty much told us as students that there is a cycle that happens when we keep those private struggles hidden. I don’t remember all of the cycle, but loneliness is a part of that cycle. Also, the same thing was talked about at my church except we were evaluating whether or not we are disciples of Christ. A part of our worship is sharing life with each other. Later that day, I was able to go out to eat with church family and share life. Another thing we did was Communion outside out church. I have been taught that Communion should be done outside of the church and should be used as a tool to witness to people. We actually took cranberry juice and bread and had communion with each other. I was actually surprised that I was able to lead it in recalling the words said in church to remember Jesus’ as we took it.

I encourage you to not always be drawn in. I believe that there are times when we do need to be alone to reflect, get away, or be with God, but I suggest not living life on your own. It can be hard sometimes if you are used to being by yourself or may not trust other people. Even though we take the risk of being hurt sometimes, try to get connected with loving people. In sharing life with people, we actually do worship God. Let us remember Genesis 2:18, “The Lord God said, ‘It is not good for the man to be alone. I will make a helper suitable for him.’”

With Love,

Angelo Tate aka Gelo