Since October 9th,
we have experienced “community” through a wide variety of gifts and
helps. It was in meals brought to our house, or errands run by neighbors; it was through the gift of friends taking time to “house sit” with our son, and family taking time away from work or school to visit and help in practical ways. In these and in other ways,
we were gifted with real expressions of community.
Why? When you’re sent to a hospital with a medical
emergency, and then you’re in ICU for two weeks, you are in real need of
practical “community!”
In the upcoming weeks on this blog, we’ll share
some stories about what we've experienced and learned about Christ-centered “community” that will hopefully encourage
you to be an active part of each other’s lives.
We believe that each of us is already part of
someone’s community, and that Christ wants to show each of us how to share
his life and his love in community with others.
This week, some thoughts about how community comes
with a cost.
Every gift or help we received during my hospital
stay had one thing in common – each gift was not convenient for the
giver. In fact, caring for one another is not “convenient,” by
definition. You must give up something in order to care for some one.
Time is limited. Money is limited. And our personal
energy is limited. So, in order to “be” a Christ focused community, it will
cost; and that means we will usually be inconvenienced.
That’s why we are called to “Bear one
another's burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ.” (Galatians
6.2) We can help shoulder a burden, and that involves a certain amount of
sacrifice and effort to pick up and carry a “burden.”
But being a community in Christ is not a legalistic
work; it is a spiritual expression of love for each other. The love or empathy
we feel for others will make the giving sweet and holy.
This is expressed by the apostle John when he wrote: “By this we know love, that he laid down his life for us,
and we ought to lay down our lives for the brothers. But if anyone has the world's goods and sees his brother
in need, yet closes his heart against him, how does God's love abide in
him? Little
children, let us not love in word or talk but in deed and in truth.”
(1 John 3.16-18)
