Mindy Caliguire - STIR: Spiritual Transformation in Relationships

A mong the first things I did to launch my ministry, Soul Care, was to exhibit a new line of prayer journals at the annual must-attend event for Christian retailersthe Christian Booksellers Association convention. This event, I was told, was the place to make my debut.

With an existing customer base of ten independent bookstores and the boundless enthusiasm of a new entrepreneur, I signed up for the event well in advance, eager to prove I was really serious about this. A few months later, I packed my bags and quirky display and headed to the big timethe ten-thousand-square-foot convention center in Orlando, Florida. I knew this was an important step, and I couldnt wait to see what God might have for me.

I was so excited the first day of the convention that I arrived at the earliest possible time to begin setting up my eight-by-eight-foot booth. In comparison to the palatial booths of most of the other exhibitors, my booth might better have been called a hovel. But it was mine, and I was determined to make the best of it.

As I set up my 0.0008 of the exhibit hall, I discovered yet another indication that I didnt quite belongand perhaps it was an indication that my Soul Care vision might be easily misunderstood. The conference organizers provided a sign for my bootha slim, nondescript white rectangle with ten-inch black letters that read Sole Care.

Needless to say, I took down the sign. I wasnt planning on using it anyway. But it made me think about the employees of convention centers who walk on those concrete floors every day, all year long. My feet are sore after just a few days! Maybe all they can think about is the sole of their foot.

But I found another deep irony in the misnomer as well. You see, for many Christ followers, the Christian life, our journey with God on this earth, is a soleas in soloexperience. Even when we are surrounded by family and friends and gather together at well-attended churches, we too often walk the journey of faith alone.

Sadly, we are accustomed to sole care.

Have you ever felt that way about your faiththat its just a you-and-God thing? We know that life with God is supposed to involve loving people and being involved in community. But really, who has time for all that fluffy stuff? And why bother when it often seems to result in disappointment at best and a heap of frustration and trouble at worst?

It doesnt have to be this way. Not only is this individualistic pattern of spiritual life something early church leaders never intended; its safe to say they would have found it unimaginable. Consider this description of what was normal for the first generation of Christ followers:

They devoted themselves to the apostles teaching and to fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer. Everyone was filled with awe at the many wonders and signs performed by the apostles. All the believers were together and had everything in common. They sold property and possessions to give to anyone who had need. Every day they continued to meet together in the temple courts. They broke bread in their homes and ate together with glad and sincere hearts, praising God and enjoying the favor of all the people. And the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved.

Acts 2:42 47

The relationships that marked this community were a reflection of the deep transformation they had experienced as individuals. By Gods design, relationships in this new community increasingly defined them as they laid aside cultural and religious affiliations. In addition, these new relationships produced in them the character formation that would identify them as Jesus own peoplehis unique community.

I believe many Christians today head in a dangerous direction when they neglect these essential relationships and decide they can do without a community that enfolds and nurtures the life of God within them. While some long to have deep, transformational relationships, they may have been wounded in the past and are now distrustful. Ive been on both sides of the wounding, and it is sad and tragic. But isolation is not the solution to our pain. Whatever the cause, whatever pain has wounded us or hurt us, isolating ourselves from the community of Jesus followers can kill off the life of God in us.