Endings

After years of talking about it we finally did it. I had done it years earlier and tried to unsuccessfuly replicate it. That is, co-living in community. Intentionaly letting someone live with you for a common purpose. Our purpose? To love well.

It was working well. Messiah said that people would know we were his disciples by the way we loved each other. It was a work in progress but it was progressing. Our co follower along this journey was changing and growing more into the kind of Jesus person he always wanted to be, and so were we.

The reward for co-living was a life of facing down difficult things together and committing to change for the better. It was making no plan B other than adding to our community, growing the love and letting it spread beyond.

The dream is still alive, but our friend, housemate, and fellow Christ follower is not. He passed away a month ago.

I was mentally prepared for most every difficulty that could confront and possibly derail our attempts to live our Jesus walk in a community in full view. I was not prepared for this one.

Not sure what happens next. His room is empty. His place at the table is too. It doesn’t feel like they are ready to be empty but neither am i ready or even willing to fill them with someone less committed to community than their former occupant.

I only have a few blog readers. Perhaps that makes me lazy, I don’t know. I know a post is supposed to end with a lesson or at least some sort of closure. I have no ending. I cannot tie this up in a little bow and set it on display. Had I waited a bit longer i probably could, and while it would still be real, it wouldn’t be raw.