Recently I have had the supreme privilege of gathering with some amazing people. We meet up almost every week. We get a cup of coffee, tea or smoothie to sip on while we talk, laugh, pray, cry, contemplate and expound on what God is doing in each of our lives. Too, we encourage, sharpen and walk along side each other as we do life. It has been a beautiful reminder of what can happen when we lay aside our agendas, comparisons and preconceived ideas and just be together. This is community – relationship.

On this particular day we were just chatting about everything and nothing in general. We landed on the topic of our personal styles of “Stuff” collecting. Some of us are all in and have kept items from eons ago, not out of fear but its just who we are. Some of us have purged and continue to purge on a pretty consistent basis. What was interesting to me as a person who heals and studies the inner workings of the heart and mind is that all throughout this conversation there was laughter and acknowledgement of where and who we are as people of God. How different but necessary each of us are to the kingdom and how our differences in this space are being celebrated not judged and condemned. There was also recognition that we need each other – those with the most stuff and those without.

The conversation turned deep as it often does to the matters of the heart. We shared stories of family struggles, overcoming obstacles as well as accomplishments we have managed to etch in this era of our lives. We talked about things that we walked through when we were young that we have had to work through as an adult and that because we chose God our lives look so much different than what satan had in store. Because we chose God our families will never have to overcome, fight or be exposed to the things we were. Because we chose God the legacy – the heritage of our families looks so vastly different.

We talked about the richness of what we have experienced having come along side each other in our newly formed community and that for some of us we have longed for this very thing for quite some time. One of the ladies that was there put is so succinctly when she said, “As women we need a safe place to fall”. I thought to myself that is so true. We need a place we can go when we know our hearts aren’t overflowing with Jesus and be comforted, encouraged and prayed with. We need a safe place to lean, land and get our arms raised to battle once again. We need a company of warriors ready to go to war with us for our inheritance. We need to know when we expose the most vulnerable parts of ourselves we are met with the love of Christ and that this very place is where healing happens.

After my beautiful friend prophetically spoke about safe places she read a poem written about friendship and flowers. The gist is that we are all different, yet together we make up a garden that to the Creator we serve is beautiful. When we all celebrate the uniqueness of each other, embrace the best qualities of ourselves and do our part in the garden we create a masterpiece that is breathtaking in the love and extravagance we have to pour out on others. So, lets ready our hearts and minds so that where ever we are there is community not competition. When we gather, wherever we gather let’s celebrate each other, encourage one another and go to war on the others behalf. Let’s do this together so we can be the safe place for someone to fall today.

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