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Let Us

                 And let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds, not giving up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but encouraging one another—and all the more as you see the Day approaching. (Hebrews 10:24-25)

                Yes, I mentioned the second verse in today’s passage yesterday. I’m still thinking about the concept of community. I’m sure there are people who have the whole community thing figured out. I think God may be working on me in this area. I don’t think I have it figured out. I don’t even want to figure it out. I’d much rather give up meeting together, except online (perhaps). I want to be invisible. I want to hide. I don’t want to deal with people because they’re going to decide that I’m a freak, a monster, or a loser and walk away. It’s happened too many times.

                But here I am, and here you are, and today, I’m supposed to consider how I may spur you on toward love and good deeds and encourage you.  And the first thing that comes to mind is one I’ve shared before. We can spur people on to love and good deeds and encourage them by exercising our love languages and speaking in theirs, so that they “hear” it. Another idea that comes to mind is that we pay attention to them with our hearts/wills/spirits, minds/thoughts/feelings, bodies, relational capacities, and souls, keeping those same “pieces” of them in our perspective.

                As I describe these two ideas, it makes it sound as though community is a one-to-one thing, while most people (including me) would say that a community is much larger. Both are true and we need to be carefully mindful to both. We desperately need to build community with spouses, parents, children, and siblings (etc.) while building the larger “building” in which those communities function. I’m not suggesting a Stepford community. There is room for diversity. We don’t have to all walk alike, talk alike, and look alike. But we need to discern healthy parameters and build them. There is room for improvement. There is room for innovation and diversity, but not at the cost of the whole.

                But the point of the day is that we need to be active in the process.

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