Once there was a little girl who always felt a little odd, a little different, a little out of place. She was intelligent, she was outside the box, she was loved, but at times all she felt was alone. As she went off to college, she still felt different. She didn’t quite fit, yet she was surrounded by people. She tended to collect people, connect people, counsel people, but she wondered if she would ever have friends who wanted to do the same for her.

Then she entered the online, social media world and found life could be even more lonely. She felt connected with legions of acquaintances, but those friends who would ask how she was, those friends who would drop everything and pray, those friends who would celebrate or cry with her, felt almost too small in number to count.

But this woman serves a faithful God. He has shown her how she is planted in community. There is the family community. The friends who’ve known her forever and still love her. The friends who will drop everything and come in a moment of crisis and who know that her comfort food is ice cream sandwiches (don’t judge). The church community with deep roots in Him and each other. He has planted her in writing communities of richness.

And when the seasons change, and friends move, she still feels alone sometimes. But then she stops to remember the beautiful women God has planted in her world. The people who see the ugly and still love. The people who have held her when she felt like her soul was ripping from her body. And the people who genuinely celebrate with her in success and joy.

Community is a cry of the heart.

Community is a deep need of the soul.

Community is a prayer waiting to be answered.

But community is so much more. I have learned so many truths about my story as I have risked community. The Grove was one such risk. Each of these women are among my dearest friends and confidantes, but it took a risk to ask them to join in community with me. Community are the secondary characters, the mentors, the risk takers who help make me more than I am on my own.

My prayer is that God would give you a community of sisters that will help you peel back the layers of your story. Do you have such a community? How did you find them? How do you cultivate and maintain those friendships?