In Honduras, before I moved out to my tent, I slept less than six inches away from Dan. In the morning, when I wanted to use the restroom, I had to share three stalls and two showers with 50 other people — guys and girls. I thought that, after last month, I had learned all I needed to about community.
I was wrong.
Community isn't just proximity. Community comes from a desire — not a demand — to share your lives with others.
A couple of weeks ago, we witnessed what community really looked like. About 10 teenagers in Bethel decided to devote their lives to Christ and get baptized one Saturday afternoon, and we were invited to attend. We were told to bring our bathing suits. After all, if the water is holy, why wouldn't you want to get in?
I expected to see no more than 30 people there — the baptizees themselves and their parents. Instead, we encountered almost the entire community there. Families who had no relation to any of the kids being baptized showed up. I expected for the ceremony to take no more than 30 minutes. I remember my baptism being over in a splash. And I was right — the ceremony itself didn't take that long at all — but the unexpected was that, after it was over, everyone stayed. They swam. They ate. They talked. They wanted to be there with each other.
When church is over, I love to get lunch with my friends. Then, I love to go home and watch football, either by myself, or with two or three people, tops.
When the families of Bethel came back from the baptism, they went into each others' homes. They continued to do life together. Because it is what they want. It isn't because they're ignorant of the costs. They know the costs better than we possibly could because we don't really know what it's like to lack. But when they lack, they lack together. When they have abundance, they share.
In a community, there is always enough. There is enough time to tell one more story, enough food to share with one more person and enough love to make even a 6-foot-3 white guy feel welcome and to show him patience as he continues to learn about something he thought he already knew.
