Biking is good for your health....so are friends...and good things, like community.

This morning my best friend Alison and I woke up at 4:30 to ride our bikes to church so she could open the cafe. I've become a wierd morning person. And Ali's wierd in general. So it's been a fun morning. Anyway, she decided to start riding her bike to church for two reasons. They are as follows:
1. She's lacking in the vehicle department and rollerblading to church has proved dangerous in the past... lets just say someone who wasn't alison and might have been me might not have known how to operate the brakes on her own blades and may or may not have been inches from

death on rickertt.

2. The fresh air will do her good
Sitting in the cafe this morning, I realize more and more the beauty of community. Donald Miller speaks well on the method of personalized spirituality that is projected in so much Christian teaching today. He goes on to point out that Biblically, community and faith go hand in hand. When I try to grow in a vaccuum, (even that of a Christian community) I begin to lose the relational ability to connect with people in a relevent, empathetic way. I get caught up in my development and my thoughts and faith becomes something that is driven by a strange selfishness. I think its safe to say that a lack of shared faith can lead to a lot of spiritual pride. Have you ever been discouraged by a Christian leader who isn't able to admit struggle or weakness? It leaves others in the community with a feeling of shame and an inability to connect at a heart level. The community as a whole misses out. When we practice this self-involved faith, we reject the fullness God offers us in the community he has created us for, and take away from those whose stories are inseperable from our own: friends, co-workers, leaders, aquaintences, those we are leading, people we chat with on a plane... Why is it that I find myself experiencing guilt when I realize I'm lonely? Because too often and too casually Christian culture reminds us that we must only rely on God, never man. And while this is true in the sense that God is our first love and the only One who will never let us down, i think an evil misconception seeps in that to need others is to be weak, to be lacking in faith. I love that God has created us as relational beings, and love the community he has surrounded me with. Amidst hardship and change and confusion there have always been these beautiful people who I've gotten to share life with. I pray that God will continue to reveal to me how to love recklessly.
written by Alison's best friend-the great and ohh so humble Kelly Shea