This Wednesday as I was leaving work at Cove, I found myself looking around at all the cars in the parking lot with a sense of renewed joy. Each car in every spot represented one of you, choosing to live life with others.
For so long, our campus has felt rather empty. And over the course of the last year, I hate to admit it, but I started to get used to it. I began to embrace that maybe this was the way the world would be, with physical separation between us all.
But now... seeing people I haven't seen in a year, realizing how much we've all been changed and yet are still ourselves, trying to figure out who we will be on the other side of this, it all highlighted one simple fact:
We need each other.
We need people who find us in the darkness and shine a light towards what could be rather than what is. We need people who will share the burden of our brokenness and gently hand us back the hope that we are not too far gone. We need people to love, to help, to give us purpose, and make us see beyond ourselves.
We've spent a year in relative isolation, holding on to God and the people closest to us. But now it's time to move beyond our smallest circles and love all people in a big way, even when it's uncomfortable.
Cove fam, thank you for showing up. Not just at our building, but for each other. Thank you for being steadfast and trusting Jesus even in the hardest times. And thank you for being part of our messy, imperfect church family, living life authentically and gloriously broken, together.