I’ve lived with people for the last five months. Every day I’ve woken up to people, eaten with people, done ministry with people, processed with people, had fun with people, and then gone to bed after a full day of people. That’s part of the world race and its what I signed up for when I started the process of becoming a world racer.
I longed for a community long before the world race started and to be honest, a part of me has always wanted a place where I could share my load with others and help them in return. Living in community seemed to be the answer to this desire.
But what does living in community actually mean? In Galatians, we are encouraged to “gently and humbly help that person back on to the right path [from sin]…share each other’s burdens, and in this way obey the law of Christ” (Galatians 6: 1-2 NLT). Galatians is saying that we should help each other when one falls. We should share our loads with each other and in doing so, love each other and therefore follow the law of Christ.
My question to you is: are you living with people or are you living in Community?
From my experience many world racers don’t live in community, they live with other people. We are so quick to say, “Yes, I live in community” when we’re with others who understand the terminology. We’re quick to explain what it means for those who don’t, and even quote the same scripture above. We’re quick to complain about it when we hit a rough path or are in desperate need of some introvert time. But when it comes to telling those around us the hard things in our faith, to openly label the rocks we stumble on, and to give a piece of our journey to someone else, we shy away.
This isn’t just a world race problem either. How often do we plug into a church for a place to belong and then put on a face to ensure that we do? We’re quick to agree on the important facts of our faith, but when we go to actually apply them to our lives we struggle to take off the mask that hides the imperfect and real version of ourselves that we would prefer not to portray.
I can’t imagine what it would have been like to be apart of the community of believers that is described in the beginning of Acts. They prayed with one another, shared possessions, and furthered the kingdom together. Okay, so maybe I relate with them a little more than I thought… but the point is that when Peter and John returned from being presented to the high council for healing people in the name of Jesus (this is the same high council that fought to have Jesus crucified), the people prayed together.
They could only have prayed together if they were invested in each others lives enough to know that Peter and John gone before the council. They only would have known to pray for courage to further the kingdom if Peter and John had reported to them what had happened.
At the end of the day, it’s a choice to step into vulnerability and share our thoughts, hopes, day-to-day lives and struggles—all of it—with those who we have chosen to call our community. It doesn’t matter if it’s a church you’ve chosen, a family you born into,d or a team you were placed on. You have to take the risk and tell the people around you what is going on and how you feel about it.
You can go your whole life depending on your own strength and your own understanding if you want to but that’s not living in community. That’s just living with people around you.
So I’ll ask it one more time: are you just living with people or are you living in community?
