COMMUNITY

            I was reading today in a cooking magazine about a neighborhood that had Sunday dinner gatherings.  The writer used the term community building when describing their group.  This led me to think about the importance of community in my own life.  When Chris and I first moved to the area, we lived in student housing.  Chris was in grad school and I was teaching at a local private school.  Caleb was just a year old.  We lived in the older section of apartments.  The apartments were arranged in courtyards and we spent many evenings together with our neighbors, often just sharing the little and odd assortment of food we had.  I remember these times fondly because it was through this time that I realized how important it was to feel as if you belong to people, and that the people you surround yourself with understand what it is like to walk in your shoes. 

            Since this time, we have moved from student housing to a neighborhood that models itself after Mayberry, and now to the wooded retreat that we live in.  Through all of this I have found that a sense of community is crucial to my well-being.  We have the privilege to be part of a home-group that breaks bread together every week.  We don’t pretend to tackle any deep theological questions.  We don’t really even tackle the shallow ones.  We simply eat together and pray together as best we can with all the children running around.  Our church had a meeting one evening for each group to discuss how we felt our individual groups were doing and what we could do better.  We listened to other groups discuss what they were studying and how they felt that things were going and we decided as a group that we were just awesome!  You may laugh at this, but I found it refreshing.  Now, don’t get me wrong.  I am not knocking the other groups.  They are at different points in their lives.  It just was nice to know that we as a group understood the importance of community, relying on each other.  This group of people is often my lifeline.  I can share what my weekly struggle is and know that I am going to enjoy the fellowship of their laughter, food, and wine every Thursday night and have a night off from cooking two to three times a month.  This is where true friendship is birthed, in the everyday.  It is in the stress of life, the poopy diapers, the vomit, the crazy coworkers, that we find connections with each other and can offer each other a way outside of all of that.  I am extremely thankful for the love and honesty I find each week when we finally sit down together and I am challenged to be more honest with myself and with my friends each week.  That is what community is.