One of my favorite movies of all time is Forrest Gump.

The iconic phrase, “Mama always said life was like a box of chocolates. You never know what you’re gonna get” is something expressed at least once a day at my house. And though I do agree that life can be equated to an intricate collection of savory, as well as occasional unpleasant delicacies (such as the absolutely disgusting molasses-filled chocolate!), lately I find my mind pondering this question:

If life is like a box of chocolates…

1. How do we go about choosing the box we will most thoroughly enjoy?

It is pretty obvious that life is composed of moments that require making some sort of decision. Having to make a choice is an everyday enterprise that we are all too familiar with. From asking ourselves “what are we making for dinner” to our children asking the nightly, “do I have to take a bath”, never a day goes by without us having to make a compromise.

But what if we have to make a life-altering decision? You know, those massive life decisions that cause us to lose sleep, lose weight (or gain it!), and lose our minds. The kind of decisions that stress us out like no other and cause us to really stop and think about our next steps.

What career path do I follow? Am I really cut out for this job? Chase passion or responsibility? Should I go back to school? Should my spouse and I seek marriage counseling? Is my lifestyle holy God’s eyes? Do I stay or do I go?

Let’s be real: there are often forks in the road we need help with; necessary and crucial decisions that we just can’t make alone due to their magnitude and importance. The reality is, if life is a like a box of chocolates then we need help in making the right selection.

When faced with a life-altering decision, we often want to be right when instead, we should first be wise. Silly human, we need to be wise! However, in order to be wise, we have to let others speak into our lives, provide insight, and counsel. Life-altering decisions are far from simple – that is why they are life-altering! Planning for the future, or heck, even planning for tomorrow can be a challenge when trying to figure everything on our own. But how do we make a wise decision if we don’t see the big picture?

I realized something about myself the last few weeks: I don’t know everything and I definitely can’t see everything. I wish I could but that is not the case.

However, I did learn that a collection of people I know, trust, and highly respect make up that deficit. I may not know everything but the people I trust each know something they can teach me. I may not see everything but the people I trust each have perspectives that see components I’m prone to overlook. I do not always know what to do and I can not always see the big picture – but together, my community can.

Sometimes all we need is a little vision and Biblical truth from people we trust to really push us towards making the right decisions. Personally, I am very fortunate to have an amazing group of people helping to guide and mentor me (as well as cheer me on) through important life decisions I am facing right now – decisions that I just can’t make on my own. My question is:

Do you have these kinds of people in your life?

Do you have a community that can speak truth into your life? How about Biblical truth?

A church-wide email was sent out last week regarding Tailgate Sunday on October 30th. That is this Sunday. The event is directly following 10:30 service and will be out in the church parking lot. The gym will be filled with bounce houses for the kids, quite the number of hot dogs will be grilling (Carolina Packers will be provided for all of our die-hard fanatics!), friendly competition is a given, and most importantly, a trail of canopies representing church community groups will be present.

The idea and purpose behind Tailgate Sunday is this: creating a sense of community via community groups.

What does that look like and what the heck does that even mean?

• Community look like this:

Building relationships, exploring truth, and supporting each other through prayer and additional practical ways.

• Community Groups look like this:

Individuals slowly becoming the version Jesus intended for them to be with the help of others authentically investing and caring about their spiritual, physical, mental, and emotional well-being.

Community groups not only gather together, share and pray, but they are intentional in helping individuals like you and me understand and apply Biblical truth in everyday life.

These are great groups for someone saying:

“I am a little intimidated by the size of this church, but I want to better understand the teachings I am hearing at church, and I want some help in applying these teachings to my life.”

These community groups and environments have been carefully designed to help individuals who share similar seasons of life and live in similar areas of town. Regardless of whether you consider yourself young or old, Christian or non-Christian, single, married, or divorced, we have a place for you to connect, to grow, and to belong. We want you to be plugged into a community group because life is hard and sometimes, we just need a group of people who can speak into our lives the way Christ would.

So if you have a jersey and you are into repping your favorite sports team, head on over! If you like hot dogs, free food, and conversation, we’ll see you there! If you have a free Sunday afternoon or if you are just lonely and want to find your niche and collective of people, don’t miss this. If you happen to be introverted and slightly awkward like me and this isn’t you’re thing, come on anyway; we can be introverted and awkward together.

Life is difficult and making decisions alone can be challenging. The trick is the realization that we have to be wise in our decisions and being wise requires advisers and counsel. Community and developing genuine relationships are key to not only being wise but becoming the very best version of  ourselves – the version God intended us to be.