I’ve been living in Portland for two months now, trying to live out my faith the best way I know how: in community. That word is thrown around a lot and has come to mean many things with many connotations. I don’t think many people (myself included) truly know what community looks like the way God envisioned it; I don’t think we ever fully will until we meet our heavenly father. But since I am (and other Christians are) charged with bringing about God’s kingdom/redemption in this world, I am doing my best to find what God’s (holy) community feels like. Luckily, we aren’t left totally in the dark without any hints as to how it’s meant to be done.
I’ve only ever gotten little tastes of the body of Christ acting as a holy community. Much to my own disgust, and most of the time, I find Christian community embodied in an atmosphere resembling more of a club. But, last weekend I was able to witness something close to holy community. My dear friends Katie and Peter (a married couple teaching English in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan), and Peter’s visiting parents were taking a taxi to the airport when they were struck by a drunk driver. The impact killed Peter’s dad, Ken, broke Peter’s foot and a few ribs, broke Katie’s vertebrae and gave her a concussion, and Peter’s mom, Ellen, received bruises. Katie was left unconscious, needing surgery in a hospital that couldn’t provide any services…not even proper pain medication. The drunk driver was killed. The taxi driver was injured with both legs broken, vertebral injuries, and a concussion.
Needless to say, this was and is an incredible shock. I felt completely helpless. I couldn’t fly out and help. I couldn’t go back to my hometown to comfort their family. Other than sending encouraging messages, I could only stand by watching for their Facebook page updates, waiting for news of their safety. What I saw but didn’t expect to see was a huge reaction by my brothers and sisters back in my hometown and around the world. Everyone jumped onto Facebook and offered words of encouragement, meals, hugs, prayers, donations, and help with the business back home while Katie, Peter, and Ellen were away for an extended period. People even offered to travel out to Dubai (where Katie had to be flown because of the state of her injuries, and the poor quality of care in Bishkek), and some did. Brothers and sisters in Dubai opened up their homes to family members and friends coming in to be with Katie, Peter, and Ellen (as well as housing Peter and Ellen). It was incredible! Everything was taken care of. Prayers were answered. Ellen is now back home with her family. Katie received surgery and is on the road to recovery with Peter right by her side, both surrounded by people who love them.
After witnessing all this, the tragedy, the grief, the compassion, the serving, the sacrificial giving, I got to thinking about our human nature and tendencies. We are beings that tend toward the path of least resistance. We often take a stance of complacency toward others in our every-day business, doing what comes easily, filling our thoughts with how to meet only our own desires. But when the circumstances are extraordinary, we grow to our full potential and do extraordinary things. We exit our world of self and go out of the way to meet the needs of our struggling brothers and sisters. We leave behind any thought of how we are being inconvenienced or used. I believe that that is how community is supposed to be. This is what Christ intended. Not just in trying times, but all of the time. Looking out for the needs of others and being hyper-aware of our surroundings, not locked in our own worlds or never looking past the end of our own nose.
In Matthew 5 when Jesus is talking about going the extra mile, he’s talking about how to react to an enemy. He’s asking us to go above and beyond for people who do not have our best interests at heart. I’m not going to get into this discussion of how to treat our enemies, but if this is how He tells us to treat our enemies, I would imagine the same applies for those close to us, and everyone in-between. Philippians 2 actually contains my favorite verses on this: “Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit, but in humility consider others better than yourselves. Each of you should look not only to your own interests, but also to the interest of others.” You can also look in Acts at the community that the early Christians were forming; it says that they had everything in common and shared with anyone in need. People were more interested in the needs of the community than about if they were being trodden on, or if their own needs were being met. I could delve deeper into these bits of scripture, but I think from these little snippets we can glean the meaning that we are meant to operate for God and others, not just for ourselves. We can see that we are meant to act every day like we act in times of great crisis — that that beautiful giving and sacrificing nature is supposed to be a day-to-day reality.
I am so far from this attitude!! I don’t want to clean up others’ messes. I don’t want to let a housemate borrow my headphones. I don’t want to cook for someone. I’m afraid that others will use and abuse me, and my desire to serve. I don’t want to be an easy target for exploitation. I want to make sure that my needs and wants are taken care of first. My attitude is nowhere near that of Christ’s. But He gave everything. He was totally walked all over and used for our advantage. He never really stood up for himself as a person besides telling us to follow him, and retreating occasionally from the crowds. But he did stand up for others, for God, and for God’s will.
When I look to the example of last weekend, the example of Christ, and read those bits of scripture, I feel a surge of hope. It is possible to live out this attitude. It is humanly possible to live in holy community, not just get little tastes of it every once in a while. For me, just having this hope takes out a big chunk of the battle between my selfishness and being able to experience community. Even with being so far from my ideal, knowing that I can change, with God’s help, from my lazy, selfish mindset into a mindset of serving God and others above myself gives me hope and a desire to keep journeying toward that holy community.
So for my part in bringing God’s reality to earth, I will keep trying. I won’t stand for my laziness and selfishness. God made you and I better than that.
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p.s. sorry for the excessive use of parenthesis. 🙂
The Gladstone Community 
