We

During the Biblical Growth Class, we have started putting the pieces of the Bible together starting with Genesis and moving forward in God's story for us. I was sitting in on the first part of both classes and shared during the second one that I have had this overwhelming sense of "We" throughout God's chosen people. As Joseph struggled in captivity and ultimately understood his purpose, he spoke of how his purpose related to all of Israel. So many times, the people of Israel used a universal "we" when speaking of their struggles, victories, etc. This seems so different from our personal view of struggles, victories, etc. We discuss God and his will in terms of his will for our individual life, rather than his will for humanity. We talk about our own struggles and victories rather than the struggles and victories of "us" as God's chosen people.

Perhaps this feeling is why I get so excited about doing life and experiencing life together in community. Perhaps that is why I get moved by taking communion together (as we did today) or saying the Lord's prayer and singing "Amazing Grace" together (as we did last week). Perhaps that is why I desire a strong small group where we truly do life together. I think God does have direction he gives to each of us, but I think the story of redemption is about redemption of an entire people... each of us write a chapter and continue the story, but I don't know if any of us are the central theme of the story.