Community..

What does this word actually mean?

The book I am reading right now, spells out a wonderful message of community. Shane Claiborne The Irresistible Revolution tell his story of going out and really plugging himself into the world, living a life of reckless abandonment to God. And through all the little situations he comes across, all the stories he has to tell, there is one thing that always triumphs over everything...LOVE!..

It makes sense, and I think that a true community can only exist if there is love. By love I mean REAL LOVE, not the "oh I love chocolate ice cream" love, not the "awlright luv, hows about a kiss then eh".. but the kind of love Jesus demonstrates to each and every person he sees.

Reading this book, and a recent revelation and reminding has made me a little bit uncomfortable (a good thing, because I think our boats need to be rocked every now and then). Actually these thoughts have been on my mind for a while now..its just that they have quite suddenly been amplified.

I am beginning to realise that, in my life, I have not been reaching out as much as I should have. There are, I think, many needs in the people around me that I am unaware of. Things that I could do to help, but I am simply fail to notice them. Sometimes, I honestly do not know, but that is not really an excuse because I can always try to find out. Sometimes I think that it is because I am too busy with my own life (work, evening school, tutoring etc etc) that I have no time for others....when this thought comes into my head, I am honestly quite disgusted at how selfish I am. I thought I was doing an 'alright' job of meeting people, making new friendships, strengthing old ones etc etc....however we are not to do an 'alright' job, but we should be tying ourselves together with cords of love that cannot be broken. I am trying now,and praying, to open my eyes to the people around me, my own community, my church, my home, my work to give as much love as I can.

Yes these things must begin at home. BUT what about the wider community, the rest of the people around us. If being caring and loving to people close to you is hard, then reaching out to strangers seems like a even more daunting task. There are so many needs 'out there'. People are homeless, people are addicted to drugs, people are suffering from domestic abuse, people are starving to death, people are lost, depressed, hopeless...the list could go on and on and on....for example 15 million children die each year of hunger, 500 million people live in absolute poverty!

SO what? what can we do?..in all honestly I don't really know...and this annoys and scares me. I feel like I should be doing something BUT I DON'T KNOW WHAT. Actually I was not too sure if I should post this blog or not because, now that I have mentioned these things, I should really be doing SOMETHING, anything about it...

I don't really know what it is I am trying to say....I guess in one sense it is a sorry to anyone I may have let down ever. This was done (I would hope) not with malicious intention, but just a lack of 'responsibility' on my behalf. Everyday I guess, we ALL need to bond together stronger, sharing our times of joys as well as our times of sorrow. I like the grapes analogy. We are all individual grapes, but in order to create something better (WINE!) we need to blend together.
But we must also remember, this kind of love comes only from Jesus. We cannot do it on our own.

And as for the wider community, well we should invite them in and make wine with us too. Aren't the poor and the marginalised, the sick and the oppressed exactly the people Jesus came to this world for? (The Beatitudes Matt 5 1-11). If we are supposed to be the hands and feet of God, then we should be doing something.....right now it feels a lot like thumb twiddling....

In the Lords prayer it says "Thy kingdom come, thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven"...if we really mean this..that we want Gods kingdom to come down to earth...we need to start working for it...I know I need too!

p.s I started this with a question what is community..i think the answer to the question is that a community is a place of love..where all people can come in and feel loved...
this of course leads to the next question..what is love...ah ha! for this I have a real answer...(I really like (love even haha) sharing this as it is one of my most favouritists parts of the bible)..and I am glad I actually have an answer...cause I just read through the blog and a lot of it doesn't seem to make sense...(you will find that a lot of my blogs will take this format)..anyway here is the answer...

Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. Love never fails ----------- I Corinthians 13: 4-8

keep it real...