It’s late-ish, and I’m brewing a cup of tea. My roommate is nailing up a bead curtain at the entrance to our kitchen. (Completely awesome.)
And I’m thinking about community, in general and specific. In specific, we have wonderful new neighbors at the Enclave of Abnormality, and they are quickly becoming so dear. It’s a re-discovered joy to live in this little duplex, in this little community. It’s in the random un-planned moments that it’s genius–spontaneous jam sessions next to the bookshelves, multiple pots of tea, helpless laughter.
I was having coffee with Stacy the other week and he was saying that in the Western church, we view spiritual growth largely as something we do on our own–”I’m going to read my Bible more, and pray more, etc.” But in reality, and biblically, we grow spiritually largely in community. In the midst of those hilarious jam sessions and pots of tea, something happens. We grow in friendship, in honesty, in serving others, in understanding the presence of Christ.
In general, community seems to be on the minds of many. To be honest it’s almost a bit of a fad. But I hope not. I hope we’re realizing that we need each other, that we need to know and be known. We are all interconnected, like it or not. And joy comes when we embrace it. We are nourished and renewed.
I was reading modern reformation magazine (I know, I’m a nerd) and it said something like this: we don’t sit at the table to eat with our brothers and sisters because we’re forced to or its a spiritual principle or duty, we sit and eat and commune because that’s what families do.
I’ll need to find the quote because it was much better than my paraphrase.
enjoy your tea and neighbors dear Katie!