Community

This is the first of reposts from my old blog. I'm in the process of moving it all over here. Enjoy!


Your neighborhood.
Your town.
Your city, county, state and country.
Your church.
Your friends.

The World.
Your community.

In recent weeks, my daughter has been learning about community in her Homeschool History and Geography lessons. I don't want to let her know this, but Big Daddy's been learning as well. We've been learning that community doesn't necessarily mean the boundaries of your neighborhood or city. Community doesn't even mean the people you see every day. Community means the people you serve.

Nearly a year ago, on December 26, 2004, the entire world became community as we served the needs of nearly a million people affected by a giant earthquake and tsunami. People we'd never met, who speak a language different from ours, and who likely worship a different god or gods than we do, suddenly lost everything from children and grandparents to homes and mementos. We did everything we could to bring them hope. This summer, on a much closer front, I learned that community means long hours and hard work as I prepared items for distribution to people displaced by other natural disasters named Katrina and Rita.

About a month ago, I found a neat place on the internet. It's a forum where you go and discuss stuff. This forum is huge. It's www.christianforums.com. I don't know why I went there, but what I found is another definition of community. There are literally thousands of people there. Some are not believers, but most do believe. People go there to chat about everything under the sun, including beer, barfing, kids, evangelism ... and prayer requests.

It's the prayer requests that get me. So many people out there are having the same -- or worse -- problems as me. All they are asking is that I help them get their plight before God. It's easy to do. I gotta admit, my prayer list has grown significantly since signing up.

Then, as true community goes, there is a much smaller group of about thirty that regulary shares with each other. We focus on each other more and are able to share a little more than we would with the bigger group. We have formed our own group called Faith Hope Love Forums. Consider this your personal invitation to join us.

The same holds true for all of our communities. We all live in the world. I live in the United States which is a sub-community of the world. I live in Texas, Harris County and Houston (well, not quite, but I'm one block out). Then there's my 'area', my neighborhood association, my neighborhood, my street and the folks I actually know. There's also my church, the small home group in my church, the friends I have at church... You get the idea.

Maybe I'm rambling. But that's what this is all about, right?