Quantcast
Channel: Momentary Delight » The Church
Viewing all articles
Browse latest Browse all 7

This Ain’t Who-ville: Learning to Live in Community

0
0

In my idyllic vision of community, I picture the conclusion of Dr. Suess’ “How the Grinch Stole Christmas.”

(The Grinch) took the Whos’ feast, he took the who pudding, he took the roast beast. He cleaned out that ice box as quick as a flash. Why, the Grinch even took their last can of Who hash. (Theodor Seuss Geisel, How the Grinch Stole Christmas)

The Grinch leaves Who-ville, returning to his lair. He thinks the Whos will be disconsolate. He has ruined their Christmas. But instead of weeping and boo-hooing the Grinch hears a very different kind of response.

(T)his sound wasn’t sad. Why… this sound sounded glad. Every Who down in Whoville, the tall and the small, was singing, without any presents at all! He hadn’t stopped Christmas from coming, it came! Somehow or other… it came just the same. (Theodor Seuss Geisel, How the Grinch Stole Christmas)

What I see at the end of “How the Grinch Stole Christmas” is community.

It’s people coming together at the best and worst of times. It’s community bringing out the best in people.

This is the picture I want to see, but sometimes the result of community is less inspiring.

I recently read an article in Modern Farmer about community gardens. A community garden is where you have a shared space for local people in the community to grow fruit, vegetables and herbs. You’d like to believe that community gardens will bring people together in a uniformly good way. Unfortunately, the reality is sometimes a little different.

The article by Jesse Hirsch shares several colorful stories involving community gardens, including instances of theft, involving both vegetables and gardening tools. There are accounts of drinking and drug use in the community garden. There are cultural clashes, disagreements and even brawls recounted in Hirsch’s article. Who knew that kale and broccoli could be so divisive?

One community gardener Laura Campbell remarked, “People never fail to both delight, disappoint and exasperate me. The garden is micro community living — heck, it is Syria, Iraq, USA, Russia — just in plots and plantings.” (Jesse Hirsch, Thievery, Fraud, Fistfights and Weed: The Other Side of Community Gardens, Modern Farmer December 6, 2013)

We live at a time when community seems fractured and difficult. There is a loss of interconnectedness and we see it all around us. It’s people behaving selfishly, without consideration for how their actions impact others. I’d like to believe that a sense of community and interconnectedness can be recreated through small things like gardening, sharing cookies with my neighbors or taking walks in my neighborhood. I also understand that life is rarely that simple.

My own community recently started a neighborhood association. Thus far, it’s been a wonderful experience. It’s people who love their neighborhood and who actually care about making this a better place to live.

Nevertheless, while I have big hopes for our own neighborhood association, I also understand that any neighborhood is composed of diverse people, from diverse backgrounds living in close proximity to one another. In other words, disagreement is inevitable–we’re human beings, not angels or saints.

My own experience with experiencing community at church is likewise mixed. It’s a place where I’ve experience transformative blessing and incredible disappointment.

We’d all like to believe that Christians will behave themselves like, well. . .like Christians, yunno like Jesus, but the reality is sometimes far less than our expectations. Relationships don’t get any easier when walking through that church door. We all bring our baggage in with us. As much as I might desire friendship and relationship, it’s often true that I want it on my own terms.

Whatever the setting, whether it be a garden, my neighborhood, or the church, I think the bottom line conclusion is that community can be difficult and even disappointing. Nevertheless, I strongly believe that the benefits far outweigh the risks, or the inconvenience.

In the gospels Jesus encourages us to love our neighbor. He also tells us to turn the other cheek and to love our enemy. More than just offering us simple laws or commandments, I think Jesus is telling us that life works better for us, when we live in community with others.

Yes, community is hard. It’s hard to listen to people. It’s hard to recognize that I might not always be right. Yes, it’s hard to compromise and find common ground with someone else. It’s hard when I realize that other people’s needs and interests are often very different from my own. It’s hard to see how my actions might adversely affect others around me. Community is hard in about a million different ways, and maybe this is what it makes it worth it. Community ultimately reminds me that it’s not just about me.

Can you relate to the statement that “community is hard or difficult?” Having experienced the difficulty of community, do you think it’s nonetheless worth it? Why, or why not?



Viewing all articles
Browse latest Browse all 7

Latest Images

Trending Articles





Latest Images