Mary, this one's for you.   Watch out!  Shannon. Is. Back.  Shazaam!

I had a great conversation with Mary the other day and she encouraged me to share what we talked about- glory to the umpteenth power and junk. 

Christian life is not about living a solitary life.  This is a struggle for me most of the time.  I'm an introvert- I like my time alone.  I like to shop alone.  I like to go to the grocery store and look down EVERY aisle and not buy anything- alone.  I sing in my car at the top of my lungs- but only when I'm alone (unless I'm traveling to Charleston with Mary and we're listening to the "Evita" soundtrack- THAT is an exception).  I like to cook and listen to Jamie Cullum alone.  Suffice it to say that I rather enjoy my own company.  But this is not the life that I am called to live. Christ lives within me, and if He lives in me, then I cannot remain anchored to my natural desires and be dictated solely by the personality with which I was born.  My ISFJ self must conform to Christ.  So what does that look like?  For starters, let's talk about self and Christ.  Christ was selfLESS.  He gave up His self, His rights, as God first when He came to earth, and continued to give up His self all throughout His life on earth. 

"Let this same attitude and purpose and humble mind be in you which was in Christ Jesus: Who, although being essentially one with God and in the form of God, did not think this equality with God was a thing to be eagerly grasped or retained, but stripped Himself of all privileges and rightful dignity, so as to assume the guise of a servant, in that He became like men and was born a human being.  And after He had appeared in human form, He abased and humbled Himself still further and carried His obedience to the extreme of death, even the death of the cross!" (Philippians 2:5-8)

And we are admonished in verse 4 "Let each of you esteem and look upon and be concerned for not merely his own interests, but also each for the interests of others."

So living the Christian life is about living selflessly.  You can't live a solitary life and be selfless.  Being solitary is about being alone, and being alone is about looking inward.  I'm not saying that there aren't periods of time when God may call one of His children away from society for a time, but I believe that those times are for renewal.  He fills us up to pour us out into the lives of others. 

The Christian life is not about the solitary life.  It IS about family life.  God loves every person He ever created, and wants a great big family. He wants people from every tribe and nation.  Those of us who have accepted Jesus as the King of hearts and lives are all family, all adopted sons and daughters of the Great King.  In a healthy family brothers and sisters and moms and dads share.  They share their space, food, toilet paper, toothpaste, TV time, the Sunday paper, milk, desires, fears, and the list goes on.  A family KNOWS one another.  They can tell if mom is in a bad mood by the way she walks, if dad is intensely contemplative by the air that surrounds him, if sister is frustrated by the way she puts on her shoes.  This knowing is a double-edged sword, a vulnerability that can be used for encouragement or destruction.  When used for destruction the result can be years of bitterness and resentment.  But when used for encouragement, the result is an overflow of love.

We are called to engage one another as family to the concerns of our hearts.  We are called to carry one another's burdens; to mourn with those who mourn, and to rejoice with those who rejoice.  We are not called to mourn alone or rejoice alone.  When we engage one another in the concern of our hearts, we release some of the burden and transfer it to another brother/sister.  This brother/sister now shares the responsibility of that burden.  I believe that the weight can be so heavy sometimes that a Christian collapses. Jesus experienced this physically as he collapsed under the weight of the cross on His way to Calvary.  Simon was picked out of the crowd and forced to carry the cross the rest of the way.  As a family we can carry the burden for the collapsed one.  The way to carry the burden is to lift it up to Jesus in prayer.  There have been times in my life when I felt so depressed about a situation that I could not pray- no doubt, everyone has at at least one time experienced this.  The weight is just too heavy and hope is thin.  The thing that I had so much faith in crumbled before my eyes and my faith waned.  I have a friend who held on for me when I felt like letting go.  She's my Samwise Gamgee.  You know that part at the end of "LOTR: Return of the King" when Frodo has lost his strength and Sam picks him and carries him into the pit of the mountain to finish what they started out to do?  Yeah, that's my friend.  And I think we're all called to that for one another.  The totally cool thing about it all is that when there's a huge struggle and you have people that share the burden, when victory comes, everyone shares in rejoicing over the victory as though it were their very own.  What I mean is that God gets the glory, but instead of just one person praising and thanking Him, MANY people praise and thank Him for the victory.  I call it "glory to the umpteenth power and junk."  And so I guess my point is that confessing sins and sharing burdens and rejoicing in victories gives God more glory when we do it collectively rather than individually.  Don't misunderstand- I am not at all demeaning personal revival and praise.  But don't you sense something different on Sunday mornings (or whenever) when you come into a sanctuary with many believers and offer up prayer and praise?  Isn't there encouragement in that for even the weakest soul?  I'm just really personally thankful that I have that kind of spiritual family that exhibits the love and compassion of Christ, and I hope that as I have been borne along by the faith and encouragement of others, I too will be able to return the favor.