Regret #4

4. I wish I had stayed in touch with my friends.

We were designed for community.

We were created by a God who, in His very nature, is communal. Three in one. Not alone.

Our design by "Community" is what drives our desire for community.

We were not designed to do life alone. At the core, we all know that. And if that is the case, why do so many of us isolate? Why do we buy the lie that we can "go it alone"?

Is it because real, authentic, community, is not easy? It takes me being willing to be transparent. It takes me allowing people to see the real me; mistakes, faults and all. It takes me allowing people to speak into the rough areas of my life.

Real community involves me being honest about who I am with others who are willing to be honest about who they are.

And that can be very scary.

So what do we do? We settle for acquaintances and shallow friendships. We fill our lives with other people just like us: People who entertain us but never challenge us. People who we can spend time with but who, if we lose them, we feel no real sense of loss because they are easily replaced. And we spend years and years filling our lives with "people" but we seldom experience real "community".

And when we get to the end of our life and we look back on who we "did life with" we remember the real friends, the ones that really mattered, and we wonder why we didn't invest more time in those relationships.

Don't let this be a regret of yours. Put in the time and effort to build community with people that really matter. It's what you were created for.