Community…

Its funny how those things you dread often turn out to be actually rather good….

A case in point is coming to live at college. After many years of living on my own, in my own home I was really not looking forwarded to living with a load of strangers, sharing bathrooms, having little private space and no control over even the most fundamental things such as what time to eat meals and yet…

…those strangers are rapidly becoming friends, I realise what a gift it is not to have to worry about preparing food and the shower is amazingly usually free when I want to use it :o) Most of all though I realise that privacy can be found even in the most public places, that it’s a state of mind rather more than a physical location. And you know what, sitting in the common room on Saturday night with several bottles of wine, sharing the agony and the ecstasy of the England game with a motley collection of staff and students, I realised for the first time that there was no where else I would rather be. That’s not to say I don’t miss friends, miss my home and my familiar routines, of course I do, but I am supported and maintained by a loving community who understand that because they are going through it as well.

We talk so often of the grace of God that it can sometime feel like a throwaway remark and yet Saturday night was a powerful reminder to me how much I live in this grace. For so long I was so reluctant to pursue this path, I fought God tooth and nail over it and yet the tenderness with which he has placed me here and maintains me here is breathtaking. There is no sense of recrimination, no sense of “you should have been doing this years ago” rather there is a sense of a door drawn open, a warm welcome awaiting all who venture through the door.

So when I start moaning about wanting access to a decent washing machine, lack of cupboard space in the kitchen or the person upstairs stomping about late at night can someone remind me just how blessed I am to be living here, because I never want to lose sight of that...