Dallas Willard, speaking on the "younger generation's" desire to be part of community. This might also say something about blogs, facebook (I "unjoined") and Myspace...and also maybe about church.
"That's an expression of their loneliness. But most of them don't know what community means because community means assuming responsibility for other people and that means paying attention and not following your own will but submitting your will and giving up the world of intimacy and power you have in the little consumer world that you have created. They are lonely and they hurt. They don't know why that they think community might solve that, but when they look community in the face and realize that it means raw, skin to skin contact with other people for whom you have become responsible...that's when they back away. (HT: Provocative Church)"
2 comments:
"Community" is a word that has been painted with the idyllic sheen of Heaven. But Earthly reality is always quite different.
When we moved into the condo, we wanted to do all we could to really build community. However the longer I've lived there, the less I desire to live under other people's fingernails (or them under mine). I don't envy small towns where everyone feels like they have a say in everyone else's business.
I make an effort to be friendly with people I meet in the common areas (hallways, underground parking, etc.), but I don't want to be subjected to chatter about old Mr. Johnson and his endless, deathly hacking cough, or that infuriating Betty Bee who leaves her poodle on her balcony to bark all night. And when I'm too friendly, that's what I'm rewarded with!
I'm a weird spot. I celebrate and endorse community as an ideal. But I haven't yet seen a practical example that I can wholly latch on to. So, extrapolating from my experiences of community: Heaven is a place where snippy, whining gossips have me as an eternal captive audience! Yikes! :-)
Brad, after reading this I thought of the Seinfeld episode where Jerry gets blackballed because he won't post his picture in the lobby because everyone was so familiar and huggy.
Bev and I lived in a small town. It was a virtue-vice thing. On the one hand, everyone knows your business. On the other hand, in tough times, we were thankful everyone knew our business. Even being part of a small church, we see our children love that community because adults actually know their name and greet them--much different than my own church experience where I was always someone's child, but never "matt." I'll take knowing too much about me over knowing not enough.
I know for myself, I need my space. I get energy from community, but I also retreat from it. I don't know if that is right or wrong, just me trying to maintain balance.
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