Do you want to be a VIP? Nope, I'd rather be VID.

Image from AJM Networking.
When someone is a VIP they are bound to receive some wonderful treatment, adoration of fans, and world wide attention.

VIP's are treated special and are sometimes seen as "better than" the average person. After all they are very important people.

Right before Jesus ascension into heaven Jesus gives his followers a new commandment.

John 13:34"A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. 35By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another."

Jesus could have given any instruction to his followers that day, but he choose to emphasize the primary and life-long importance of living a life of love. The love we have and share with the people around us is better than anything we could give or receive, even all those things a VIP might be likely to have.

To become a VID(Very Important Disciple), one needs to look first to the needs of others and go about the business of actively loving another person. A VID is more concerned with others than they are their own fame and benefit and somehow in the midst of all that loving, the disciple's own life is transformed into something beautiful.

A VID is important in that their acts of humility point back to Jesus who gave all he was for the benefit of humanity. It's not only Jesus words in John 13, but Jesus actions throughout the gospels that prompt us to seek to live a similar life.


Prayer:
God help me to be more concerned with the needs of others than to desire attention and praise for myself. I pray that through your grace you will help others to see Jesus living in my words and actions. Help me to be a VID - a very important disciple for you.

Community flash

The meals shared too many to count...
Just like T.S. Eliot - "My life is measured in coffee spoons." - or in my case, tea.
So much laughter, questions, nerves and chatter -
until we relax in the space of that moment and before we know it we become friends.

Then change moves in again like the breeze of a lake and pushes us to shift yet again.
To a new place, to a concept that we'd only hoped we'd start to understand and then with some discussion, some conflict and a listening ear and mind - our hearts grow larger.

We are community - growing again.

Then the cars were waiting, the trains and planes sighed with us as we boarded and headed back to where we came from - but we are not the same. We are changed, grown, challenged and loved in this community - this new family. I know we won't wait for the reunion to talk again because I already miss you.

Thank you for being my home away from home, thank you for being my tribe, thank you for being yourself and encouraging me to be myself too.

This flash of true community is the biggest parcel I'm taking home - knowing that there is still so much more yet to come.

T.L. Eastman April 2010