This morning I attended a breakfast sponsored by our local Habitat Chapter.  It has been a very active chapter having built 58 homes already in our community.  Our church is sponsoring the 59th home this spring.  Tomorrow the flooring will be added to the foundation, and if weather permits, on Saturday the walls will go up.  The director of Habitat made an important point this morning.  He said the organization wasn't an organization that did things for other people.  It was an organization that did things with other people.  Each person who receives a Habitat Home not only takes out a mortgage for the cost but also expends sweat equity in construction of the home.  The partnership includes those who give money, those who help build and those who will occupy the home.

I believe there is one other participant in this partnership that gives families a new community and a new opportunity to experience life in a better way.  "Unless the Lord builds the house, those who build it labor in vain," (Psalm 127: 1a).  At the heart of our church's mission is to be a community shaped by the Holy Spirit to serve others.   When we are about God's mission for us we are enabling God's spirit to be present in the lives of other people.  Our service is an act of faith, believing that our energy, our time and our money are being shared as a joyful gift to God who has blessed us.  These gifts help create a community linking giver, gifted and the one in whose honor all things are done.

Prayer:  Lord, you call us to live by faith and not by sight.  You invite us to be a part of a community that becomes visible only as we share our lives in faithful service to others.  We confess our fear in turning loose of the things that give us security, the things that enable us to live comfortably.  As we are able to release our time and energy, our resources and gifts to honor you and serve others, let your kingdom increase and your grace be known more fully through Christ our Lord, Amen.