Community

Community is soap in your omlette!

To all who fantasize about the wonderful joys of communal living, let me burst your bubble...

Community is decaf coffee when you really want caffeinated, cold food, warm toilet seats, dealing with night owls in the morning (and at night), having marital disputes in front of an audience, dissappointed expectations, frustrated desires, confused statements, and endless inconveniences. Community is what keeps me from finishing this post in less than three sittings...

So why do it?

Why subject yourself to the whims of others?

Tell me if this sounds familiar:

"For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me and for the gospel will save it."

There is a road that is easy, that appeals to our desires, and that leads to death. There is another road that, even to travel down is to experience a kind of death, and yet, this is the road that leads to infinite blessing, and eternal life. The way of community is the way of self sacrifice, and the way of life. The way of community is the way of Jesus.

The same person who drinks the last cup of coffee, is the one who loves my children as if they were their very own; the person who is moody with me in the morning is the one who encourages me in the evening; the community who watches my pettiness with my wife, is the same community who also reveals their own personal struggles with me; the person who 'selfishly' eats the last of the food is the one who goes out of their way to bless me with some small treat they know I like.

The simple truth is, community is the way of loving others before ourselves, loving others before ourselves means death to our self, and the one only prerequisite of a full, abundant, eternal life, is the execution of our self.

So...

...while the community experience continues to provide me with those wonderful experiences I have heard described as 'having the edges knocked off in God's spiritual rock tumbler' I am also experiencing the joy of Christ surrounded by people who love me in spite of my blemishes, and whom I dearly love.