I used to believe that I would find happiness in isolation. All I wanted was to be alone. I pictured myself living in a little cabin in the mountains far away from anyone else.

All of that changed when I moved to Breckenridge, Colorado and got involved in my church.

The more I became involved in my church, the more I reciprocated when someone reached out with a greeting or a kind word, the more I wanted to come back to church. I began coming to church on Thursdays for silent prayer, then I became a Lector, and joined a monthly discussion group.

I love my church and the people who have created a community there. It has had an important impact on me. Rather than moving farther away, I want to move closer to my church, because they have helped me to move closer in my walk with God.

Saint Paul, an early church leader and writer of many epistles of the New Testament, wrote often to the early churches about the need to create communities of love, trust, and support so that the church would grow stronger.

This passage from the fourth chapter of Ephesians is one of my favorites and a prime example of Saint Paul’s desire that we follow Jesus’ admonition that we love others as we  love ourselves and work together to build a stronger church community.

I urge you to live a life worthy of the calling you have received. 2 Be completely humble and gentle; be patient, bearing with one another in love. 3 Make every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace. 4 There is one body and one Spirit, just as you were called to one hope when you were called; 5 one Lord, one faith, one baptism; 6 one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all.

– Ephesians 4:1-6