Community continued...

A reflexion of the Newtownards Rd community on the 11th July.

The bonfire certainly brought a lot of people together...its just a pitty it wasnt a celebration of love for our neighbours across the interface

Community

Community is what being a christian means to me....

People argue over laws, denominations, dates and symbolism...but my journey has shown me that the thing that really matters is community. God has made us to be relationship people and the greatest commandment He gave was to 'love one another'

Ive always felt that community could be seen more among non-christians than christians. There seemed to be more fun, more togetherness more understanding between one another.

This doesnt make sense tho, surely a God centred group of people should reflect community more. ...The answer is yes they should (they don't always but they should) because as Christians they/we have something special - Forgiveness and Selflessness. We are naturally selfish people, infact I will openly admit i am extremely selfish, but surely we have been forgiven so much by God that we must aim towards selflessness ..towards forgiving and putting others needs first.

Forgive me if I am rambling, but so many examples recently have shown me that we don't put others before ourselves and how therefore can we expect to have community.

We often hear about the Amish community, they share their possessions and look after each other..basically they show love to one another.

I recently read Romans 12

We must be devoted to one another in brotherly love...Honour one another above yourselves........Share with God's people who are in need. Practice hospitality, live at peace with one another and do not take revenge.

This is a topic im pretty passionate about and so I hope to expand on it in other blogs (if I can get my ass into gear that is!) but for now I have broken community into 3 layers

1 Immediate Community

An example of this would be my house mates. Two amazing girls full of inner beauty (and outter!) who encourage me and who I try to encourage back. We can be truthful with each other and yet as christians we are made stronger by being in each other's presence. We can have a real laugh but also get past the general chit chat and go deep in our conversations. We all need this immediate community.

2 Wider Community

The people we meet every day..do we feel their pain? I walked past a girl last week and her face was covered in burns, it brought tears to my eyes. This sounds awful, but I was actually glad, because for once I felt someones pain. The scars were such an outward sign of what she had been through. We shouldnt need the scars, however, we need to be able to feel the pain of others as if it was our own pain, we need to care! we need to want to make a difference, to help. This is what community is!

In the song 'Indiscriminate Act of Kindness' (Voy Fance) A man takes a stranger into his home and gives her his bed while he sleeps on the sofa. The next day he says 'I just did what was right'

Do we 'do what is right' - it wont make us famous, it might not evenstand out, but as christians we are called to love and look after each other.

3 World Community

Surely community is about unity, surely it is about every child having an opportunity to live. Surely it is wrong for one person to have so much and another to have nothing.

An what about war...well thats something I shall have to think about

I will leave it there, sorry this has been a little heavy, this blog has been more challenging for me than I would care to say