Wednesday, October 17, 2007
community where?
Mother Theresa said "we can do no great things, only small things with great love." I said in the previous post that there are possibly 4 great evils facing the world - poverty, ethnic and religious conflict, HIV and other preventable diseases, and climate change. Into a world facing such enourmous challenges it is striking that Mother Theresa's quote really cuts me. I find it easy to live in a world of grandiose dreams and at times illusions. Jesus is interested in us living in reality. And you know what? Reality can't be created by a graphic designer, it can't be posted on YouTube, no virtual image can be a substitution for the bare facts of life. Reality is what we walk out every day of our lives - its being a 'dreamer of the day'.
As I seek to walk out a life that is relevant, credible and meaningful I realise that I can't do it on my own. Peter Gabriel wrote a haunting classic entitled "I love to be loved". As I live longer on this planet I think I realise that that is the cry of all humanity - "I love to, I want to...be loved." Sometimes we can be tempted to think that somehow we are wrong to want to be loved, or that some how it is a mark of our insecurity...and one day when we are finally perfectly holy, we won't need anyone, except maybe God. But the truth is that we were created to be loved by God... and by others. Scripture says "God puts the lonely in families." We were created to have family, to have friends, to have community.
One of the most prophetic things we can do as individuals in the iWorld of 2007 is to live in community and to try and create community every where we go. For all of us these new communities will look different. There can be no ellaborate formula for what one is or isn't. But at the end of the day, at the simplest level, it is about human beings loving each other in small ways, and helping each other love others in small ways. For Jean Vanier this was what he tried to envision with "L'Arche", for Shane Claiborne it is "The Simple Way", for me it was a Youth With A Mission community in the heart of the Shankill and Falls Roads.
I recently heard Dietrich Bonhoeffer quoted as saying "the person who loves their dream of community will destroy community even if their intentions are ever so earnest. But the person who loves those around them will create community." This is our mandate, our manifesto if you will, as YWAM in Ireland - to love each other and the world out there, in small ways, and by so doing create community. Its not our desire to create a little kingdom, but we want to be part of catalysing more and more people to make bold, risky, huge decisions to live lives that are made up of small acts of love in the midst of darkness and despair.
As I seek to walk out a life that is relevant, credible and meaningful I realise that I can't do it on my own. Peter Gabriel wrote a haunting classic entitled "I love to be loved". As I live longer on this planet I think I realise that that is the cry of all humanity - "I love to, I want to...be loved." Sometimes we can be tempted to think that somehow we are wrong to want to be loved, or that some how it is a mark of our insecurity...and one day when we are finally perfectly holy, we won't need anyone, except maybe God. But the truth is that we were created to be loved by God... and by others. Scripture says "God puts the lonely in families." We were created to have family, to have friends, to have community.
One of the most prophetic things we can do as individuals in the iWorld of 2007 is to live in community and to try and create community every where we go. For all of us these new communities will look different. There can be no ellaborate formula for what one is or isn't. But at the end of the day, at the simplest level, it is about human beings loving each other in small ways, and helping each other love others in small ways. For Jean Vanier this was what he tried to envision with "L'Arche", for Shane Claiborne it is "The Simple Way", for me it was a Youth With A Mission community in the heart of the Shankill and Falls Roads.
I recently heard Dietrich Bonhoeffer quoted as saying "the person who loves their dream of community will destroy community even if their intentions are ever so earnest. But the person who loves those around them will create community." This is our mandate, our manifesto if you will, as YWAM in Ireland - to love each other and the world out there, in small ways, and by so doing create community. Its not our desire to create a little kingdom, but we want to be part of catalysing more and more people to make bold, risky, huge decisions to live lives that are made up of small acts of love in the midst of darkness and despair.
