The Importance of Community

This season of our life has produced much heartache, and to be frank there is no end in sight, and the "light at the end of the tunnel" is dimming. We sprint towards it, but are being pulled backward by darkness and the fight is getting harder.

I've shared very little about our current darkness, but in order to convey the importance of community, and how we've failed to have it, I feel I must share. If you read our post "a new kind of heartache" from February, then you know that depression is taking ownership of our lives. Depression is dark and produces nightmares during the day. The majority of people experience some sort of depression, most commonly referred to as "the blues", but others are gripped and drowning with the illness of depression. We have the later form in our home, and have been struggling to win, anguished to survive one day at a time. Depression is not a popular topic, whether referring to the blues of a break up or being admitted into an inpatient program at a hospital. Because its not easy to talk about, nor anyone is eager to hear the daily stresses that come with it, community is hard to establish or maintain, and friendships diminish. All we're left with at the end of the day (and usually the dark hours of the night), is depression and each other.

It was recomended to me that I read Henri Nouwen's "Inner Voice of Love". Nouwen struggled with despair in depression, and "Inner Voice of Love" was a product of his experience, written from a collection of journal entries. Today I read the entry titled "Cry Inward", and I'd like to share it with you.

"Cry Inward

A split between divinity and humanity has taken place in you. With your divinely endowed center you know God's will, God's way, God's love. But your humanity is cut off from that. Your many human needs for affection, attention, and consolation are living apart from your divine sacred space. Your call is to let these two parts of yourself come together again. 

You have to move gradually from crying outward-- crying out for people who think can fulfill you needs-- to crying inward to the place where you can let yourself be held and carried by God, who has become incarnate in the humanity of those who love you in community. No one person can fulfill all your needs. But the community can truly hold you. The community can let you experience the fact that, beyond your anguish, there are human hands that hold you and show you God's faithful love."

This is how I feel today.

Phil and I live in Washington now, and left the most secure sense of community we'd ever known in Southern California. We believe God led us up here, and why we are going through this dark season now, with no community, is beyond me. I see where we had opportunity to establish community, but thought that this season was going to be short and temporary. We were wrong, and now struggle with loneliness and isolation.We now know that even if we think something is temporary, no matter where we go, we were created for relationships, and community is ever important, for every season in life.

If you don't have a sense of community, please learn from our current situation, everyone needs community!

Soaking in God's love, and stomping on the Devil's head,

Dalene

Gettin Got Water!!

Thanks to you generous supporters, we are about to build a well together! I am so encouraged by your support of this whim idea we had that our friends would donate $20 each for a well, and you went above and beyond in donating! The "Diarrhea is No Good" campaign raised $900 for a well, so let's pray that's enough to get water pumping! Usually the hand dug shallow well Until Then does is about $1,200, but I have faith that our $900 will be enough! There will be an Until Then team in Kenya this week working on water wells and a drop in center, so they will send photos for us to share with you.

As always, pray for water!


Dalene