Thoughts on community...

“Then the LORD God said, ‘It is not good for the man to be alone; I will make him a helper suitable for him.’” In the beginning God created us to be in community. He did not created us to be alone, but He created us to be in community with each other and with Him.

It might seem like a simple thing, but I think that so many of us forget this truth: that we are made for community. Especially here in the West, we live in such an individualistic society. We are selfish and self centered, thinking only of ourselves and what is good for ‘me’.

They might not admit it, but even in the church today, many have strayed away from the idea of community as a lifestyle. There are countless conferences, churches, books and people within the church screaming out to us that its just all about me and Jesus. It’s just about your personal relationship with Him and nothing else. That pisses me off. Its not! It’s about so much more than that. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not saying that we don’t need a personal relationship with the Lord, because we do. All I’m saying is that it is about so much more that simply that. When Christ was talking with His disciples before He ascended into heaven, He told them to ‘go out’. Don’t keep what you know to yourselves, but share that with everyone you meet. We’ve got a mission, and keeping Christ for ourselves is not a part of that.

Something I was thinking about last night was how, because we are created to be in community, we need to live like it. Instead of struggling alone, how about struggling and working through things together. Instead of getting answers from God for yourself, how about sharing those answers with others. What about being more accountable to each other. We all struggle through the same things, so why don’t we work through those situations together. Life would be so much better. I think that the church specifically, has scared many Christians away from doing this. ‘It’s just all about me and Jesus’… Frig… its all about me, Jesus, and everyone else in the world. You can’t forget that. The church for years has told us that we can’t rely on others in terms of growth for your own personal relationship with the Lord. Not true. I realize that we are all human and we fail and will never be able to provide all the answers, but I do think that we are able to work together, along with God, to figure this life thing out.

It’s such a lonely idea… going through life alone. I know they say that if you have a great relationship with the Lord you won’t be lonely. But He knew from the very beginning that it wasn’t a good idea to be alone. I don’t think that it just relates to man and woman in a marital relationship. But I think it is much greater than that. There are so many people out there that the Lord has surrounded us with, each with their strengths, weaknesses, experiences and more. Take advantage of these other people. Work through life together. It gets lonely figuring it out by yourself. And you won’t figure it out by yourself. We need Christ, we need others. That’s the way God made us, don’t fight it.