Community Matters by Sharon Hazel

This year, through the pandemic I have learnt that being part of a community is important to me and adapting to the changes has been a challenge. How we negotiate the restrictions and find new ways of connecting is probably different for all of us. As a Christian I miss, in person fellowship, studying, sharing, and reading from God’s word together but we do have ‘online church.’ I have also found new resources, I am listening to podcasts with lots of great teaching, and I have joined webinars and Zoom conferences. I miss, corporate worship, singing together, but I have sung alone lots of old favourite hymns, and found some new songs to learn on you-tube. 

At the beginning of lockdown I confided to a close friend that I was considering doing some online writing by starting a blog, and they shared this quote with me: 

“Do not depend on the hope of results. You may have to face the fact that your work will be apparently worthless and even achieve no result at all, if not perhaps results opposite to what you expect. As you get used to this idea, you start more and more to concentrate not on the results, but on the value, the rightness, the truth of the work itself. You gradually struggle less and less for an idea and more and more for specific people. In the end, it is the reality of personal relationship that saves everything.” Thomas Merton. 

That was quite a challenging quote to take on board, to examine my motives for why I am doing what I am doing! It is something that I have kept coming back to, particularly as I struggled initially to see how I could develop relationships, or a sense of community in writing. I was brought up on the classics and I had this vague image of writers, in splendid isolation, scratching away with quill and parchment in some dingy garret! 

But it is through writing that I have discovered new communities which are an inspiration and a lifeline! I have joined online writing groups and found help, advice, support, training, encouragement, opportunities and even collaboration. I have found more community online than I had thought possible. So while trying to keep and develop different ways with the ‘in person’ connections, I am also embracing the newly discovered digital world and the possibilities to utilise the internet and social media in a positive way. 

Some of you may be mentally arguing that online communities are just not an adequate replacement for ‘real’ relationships, which in a way brings everything back to the quote – to personal relationship! The greatest relationship is the covenant of grace extended to us by the Lord. If this pandemic deepens our relationship with God, as we lean and depend on Him more, surely there is a redeeming of the time. If this writing journey develops and grows my relationship with God, that I spend more time in His word than mulling over my words, then it will have an immeasurable worth. 

“Trust God from the bottom of your heart; don’t try to figure out everything on your own. Listen for God’s voice in everything you do, everywhere you go; he’s the one who will keep you on track.” Proverbs 3:5-6 MSG 

For now, in the middle of a pandemic, that is my guideline, that God brings clarity and not confusion, peace and not panic, delight, and not dread. What I do, I hold lightly and the outcome of what I do, I place firmly in His hands.... 

P.S. Looking forward to some more online community tomorrow!

Sharon Hazel has always been actively involved in her local church, with a love for Bible study and sharing from God’s word with different groups. She is a wife and mother of two ‘grown-up’ sons and is embracing a new season of her life. Sharon receives inspiration from the beauty of the coastline where she lives in Wales and blogs at https://limitless-horizon.com. Competing for her time, is one very patient husband, a horse, two Jack Russell dogs and a newly developed interest in gardening – oh and not forgetting a part-time job!