We live in a society that emphasizes individuality. We want our own individual relationship with God. That is important, but so often we forget about community, what it means to care about the whole well-being of all and not just our own relationship with God.
Just three things to consider about our need for community:
First, individuality tends to lead to competition. Our country celebrates competition, especially in sports. It’s is all about winning and losing. Somebody has to win and somebody has to lose. Winning and being #1 has become the most important thing.
This carries over into every area of our lives and leads to a life of comparison and can even lead to competition with our inner circle of family and friends. How much do you have? How much do they have? What success do you know? What failures do they have? We can lead a whole life of individuality and competition. In the process we sacrifice community and cooperation. God teaches us that it’s in community and cooperation that life truly works best.
Secondly, you create community when you rejoice with those who rejoice and weep with those who weep. It’s all about compassion, sensing the needs of others, feeling with them.
And third, to create community, we have to live like Jesus. Wherever He went, he created community. Through his love, people began to be compassionate toward one another. Once you feel compassion, you’re led to see the needs of others as well as your own. Wherever Jesus went, he created community and wherever the spirit of Jesus is today, community is created.
