While folding my brother's towels, I realized what the Romanian community has given me. The Romanian community with its' rules on: moving out, living with your family til your married, and growing up with people you've known since they were born, has taught me a lot on how to live in community. It has taught me to share, to help my brother, to give gifts to people who are starting a new season of life, to celebrate & invite people into my celebration, to want to have people around. To loiter just because.
Now, now I am the biggest advocate of finding fault in the Romanian community. You see this community is missing the gospel. It has the community but not the gospel. Because the gospel is what makes the community bigger, what helps us to see how creative, vast, & manifold God is. The gospel enables us to grow with people even though we haven't known them our whole lives. The gospel widens our horizon, becomes a "rock that keeps spreading" as joc sings, to see that we can help more than just our blood brother. Because everyone who is in Christ is our brother, and sister, and mother. The gospel teaches us to give gifts not out of obligation but out of love.
But this is not about all the faults in the Romanian community, it's about the good things. It's a good thing that it has given me a head start on living in community. And for that I can be greatful & rejoice in the fact that God used this community, this small people group, to give me a glimpse of His gospel community, to let me get used to it, to warm me up to the idea, to His big idea to what He wants to do in gospel community.
He's just broadened the idea of community in my heart, He's made it so much bigger than what I thought, then what the Romanian community has taught me. God is widening my horizon, our horizon to see that community is far reaching, more than we can see, with more culture, more diverse than anything we've ever seen or heard.
Maybe that is why God made me Romanian.
Yes, I think I'm starting to appreciate that about being a Romanian as well. A friend recently told me that she sees that as a blessing of being more selfless and patient and giving/sharing... we don't take "privacy" and "my own space" or "my own stuff" for granted. Growing up we learn to share everything with our siblings or more, be patient, share the space, give up things and comfort - not only because we're siblings, but out of love ... So these things that come with the Gospel come more natural to us...
ReplyDeleteI love you point about the Gospel - gives me a great different perspective on things! Thank you so much for sharing!