Community

It quite often amazes me that we can interact with someone on the opposite side of the world via "Skype" or at least by way of phone. How about the fact that we can play a video game against someone who lives 700 miles away and use a bluetooth device to talk back and forth. We even know about up-to-date news (both good and bad) due to the internet.

The other thing that amazes me is that we can have all these capabilities to communicate and still miss something so important as a community. Sure I have a group of people I associate with at work. Of course I have a group of people I talk to at church. Without a doubt I have friends I hang out with at times. Absolutely I have family that I get together with occasionally to celebrate a birthday or holiday and sometimes in between. But most of the people I mentioned do not live close to each other. Because of technology we have moved apart and use it to communicate with at convenient times. At least for me, we don't get together and help someone in need. We don't create deep lasting relationships that bring comfort. Even my neighbors I wave to but do not have a deep, meaningful relationship with them. I would definitely help them in a time of need, sure, but otherwise we tend to do our own things.

I believe we need to get back to creating communities of people that spend time together on a daily basis helping each other live a more meaningful life. We need to serve them when they are in need. We need to love them when they feel unlovable. We need to celebrate with them when they accomplish great things. We need to encourage them when they are struggling. Most importantly, we need to be near them to experience these things. I encourage you to create a community of people that can do all the things listed above. Together starting with you and moving to your personal community, we can start impacting the larger community around us. God bless!