When Community is Family
When I was in Denver for General Assembly, several of us went to a friend’s house to talk. He is an old Memphis boy who is pastoring a relatively new church in the city. He told me the craziest thing: he said the city of Denver would give him $500 several times a year to throw a block party for their neighborhood. I was shocked. He said, “Yeah, the state of Colorado has discovered that one of their biggest mental health issues is loneliness." I still didn’t believe him—it sounded like urban legend or hyperbole—and so I called my good friend Scott Lowe, who lives in Ft. Collins, CO, a city voted “the most desirable place to live in America" for years now, and he confirmed that indeed it is true.
State-funded block parties—who would have thought! I mean, everyone is either moving to Colorado or wants to. I tried to at one time, too. The reasons are obvious, for those of us who live at 200 feet of elevation—aesthetics! After all, Colorado has everything, you would think. In Colorado, you can live in a place where you can amuse yourself to death, in a good way, with skiing, hiking, trout fishing, golf, mountain biking, etc. If you love the outdoors, Colorado is indeed a “theater of the glory of God.” There, God’s glory shouts from the mountains. And yet, people are dying of loneliness, to the point that the state is funding ways for people to connect and get to know each other.
A lot has been written about the loss of “social capital” in the last few decades. In other words, the loss of community. It seems that as technology has made “neediness” of your neighbor more into a luxury, rather than a necessity, we don’t just naturally make a life-giving community a priority. Only later, after we have stuffed ourselves with good things, do we wake up and find we are not richer people. That is, rich in satisfaction and joy.
This week we are looking at Psalm 133 which speaks to the beauty and wonder of community. The God who made us with “design deficiencies” is also the God who made a messy, broken, love-filled community the very best place in the world to belong. I think we are like Mrs. Bird in the book, The Very Best Home for Me. It is a book I have read to all my children and now read to Addison. Mrs. Bird is just tired of her staid old bird house and wants to relocate and find something better. But alas, she discovers the very best home is actually the small place where she knows and is known. In that small world of “knowing and loving”, she inhabits a vastly larger world. That, or something like that, is the subject we will talk about Sunday. I hope to see you there!
Blessings,
Jim