Community

As our Servant Partners class prepares for the start of our year long study of the biblical book of Acts, we have been taking the better part of this week to fast and meditate on what it means to be in community with each other. Fasting for each person looks different--some are eating only vegetables, some rice, some are fasting from non-food related things--but the common goal is the same. Here are some quotes that have struck me as I have reflected on what community is supposed to be and how I fit into that...

"A lot of people ask us about living all together. And it's easy to sum it up in one word that properly describes community--and that's forgiveness. Forgiving each other for leaving the garbage in the hall, for your kid swatting another kid--or you play music too loud or I don't like the meal. At the heart of community is forgiveness. That's what has changed me the most--learning to be gracious, humble, to be merciful. It's a touch of heaven, if you will, in a broken world." Tim Bock, business manager for Jesus People USA

"The mission of a community is to give life to others--that is to say, to transmit new hope and new meaning to them. Mission is revealing to others their fundamental beauty, value, and importance in the universe; their capacity to love, to grow, and to do beautiful things and to meet God." Jean Vanier, founder of L'Arche communities for developmentally disabled individuals & their caretakers

"Therefore, if you have any encouragement from being united with Christ, if any comfort from his love, if any common sharing in the Spirit, if any tenderness and compassion, then make my joy complete by being like-minded, having the same love, being one in spirit and of one mind. Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit. Rather, in humility value others above yourselves, not looking to your own interests but each of you to the interests of the others." Apostle Paul, writing in Philippians 1:1-4