02.25.09
The need for community
Who are the people you feel closest to? What makes these people unique in your life? In many ways, we are shaped by those people that are around us both for our betterment and our detriment.
Coming through the ordeals I have had to face over the past weeks, I find that often the most intense level of community comes through a sharing of intense experiences. I have formed significant friendships with several of the people I recently was in the hospital with. Many of these people, I share very little common cultural or social bonds with as we are completely different in many ways. We aren’t the same ethnicity, socio-economic status, lifestyle, religious background and hang out in the same social circles. Yet, there is an intense bond I have with these people because of our intense shared experience of our hospital stays. It makes me understand it when they say the most intense friendships or relationships are between those who have fought in war together. They have the same intense experiences that forced them together and forced them to interact with each other.
Interacting with these people has been so refreshing to me. I find myself seeing things about myself that I don’t think I would have ever been able to discover if I wasn’t seen through eyes that looked from quite a different perspective. Before coming to a relationship with Jesus, I probably would have ignored these people if I came across them on the street. But now I have a love for these people that I can’t describe and I gain so much from my interaction with them. When I first got to the hospital I viewed myself as different, yet when we were forced together through an intense experience, I realized that these were people too despite whatever condition got them there. They were deserving of love, patience and acceptance just as much as I was. So for me, I have to thank God for the junk I had to go through because through it I was able to meet these people who have opened my eyes even more to what God’s kingdom here on earth really should be.
What prompted me to write this was my reading of Jonathan Brink’s blog and his work at acheiving authentic Godly community at Thrive Ministries . To read more on his view of what authentic Godly community is, read a recent post he wrote called Elusive Authentic Community
Bob East said,
February 27, 2009 at 8:56 am
I really like Brink’s post. “Authentic community is hard…and it is an experience that msut be worked for..” Keep the faith, dear Brother.
Jonathan Brink said,
March 1, 2009 at 2:03 am
Thanks for the kind words Brett.