What is the value of this community?
It is hard to ask this question because our culture tells us to liberate ourselves? From parents, restrictions, rules, and just be yourself. But in our community we have been given a freedom that transcendences these temporal freedoms. It is the freedom that comes with belonging/security/ walking into a big old mansion and being able to call it home. Not because of the space but because of the faces, those bonds that we have made here. These bonds differ between all the members of the community but on a more general scale, we have lived together in community and there is no way to deny that we share something. The ironic part about the whole situation is that the sharing has made us richer – we have shared struggles, laughter, first-things thoughts. This sharing is the value of community.
The challenge to myself and to our community is to posture ourselves in a stance of gratitude for this experience. More than just the delight that comes from saying “I did this awesome program” but the gratitude that comes from sharing in the richness of God’s plan for his people. This is a mysterious thing but through our grateful eyes, we must realize its greatness.
We live by mercy if we live.
To that we have no fit reply
But working well and giving thanks,
Loving God, loving one another,
To keep Creation's neighborhood. (1-5)
