Oil and Dew

Behold, how good and pleasant it is when brothers dwell in unity! It is like the precious oil on the head, running down on the beard, on the beard of Aaron, running down on the collar of his robes! It is like the dew of Hermon, which falls on the mountains of Zion! For there the Lord has commanded the blessing, life forevermore.

Psalm 133


I just went on a hike with my best friend. It is June in Phoenix, but the weather was astonishing. It was breezy and warm, but not hot. The sky was spilling over with clouds and everything looked fresher than normal.

We seriously just walked around in the desert for two hours.

Looking back, it seems very significant that our lives are lived in the desert. Hiking over rocks and down into little ditches; curving around cacti and in between mountains always reminds me that life is dirty and hot and exhausting...

But the time we spend in the desert is full of beauty. We connect, we respond, we pray, we live.

And when the weight of the burdens we carry becomes too much, we have someone to sit in the dirt with us until we find the peace that comes from the Spirit of God.

I am so very thankful for the joy that has come from Tassie and Mike and the boys coming home. I feel like God is using them to complete the vision of community that has been building in us for the last few years.

This is a family that we live life with. We play with them, we search the heart of God with them, we are encouraged by them and we are seeing them almost every day.

We are in all in the desert right now. Things are prickly and the enemy is constant and clever.

What joy that we are traveling together! What peace that we are not alone! What hope that we are pressing onward!

The last few weeks have been strange and heavy; I have personally been battling and have been very fearful of what lies around the next corner. This morning I feel like that fear has lifted; like I am free-er.

This is the intended purpose of community; this is God's beautiful plan. We are moistened by the love of the Lord when we stand together; when we lift the crushing weight of one another's burdens. We are anointed by the oil of God's purposes when we search for the Word of God together.

This is where we find life; this is where life is fully lived.

Hallelujah!!!

So, as I write this, I pray for this powerful joy of the Lord to be your own; for the deliverance and healing of your own hearts. I pray for your community to be a safe and strong place. I pray for your hearts to belong to the Living God and for your lives to be lived in the village of his Kingdom.

Grace and nothing but pure and radiant grace to you all....