You know, one of the biggest things that I’ve learned in my life is pursuing and preserving a sense of community, whether this is at church, at school, or within your circle of friends and family. Why? Good question.
At first I thought, the world is such a crazy, lonely, and harsh world. Why not build relationships of support, guidance, and love? Why not create these circles that we can depend on in time of need? Pretty ambitious, huh? The problem is, not everyone thinks this way. This harsh world that I’m talking about? It’s hurt a lot of people and not a lot of people see things the way I do. It makes them close up, it makes them depend on only themselves, even when they really do want that shoulder to lean on.
And so my next point is, why should I even care then? Why do I care so much to have everyone feel included and supported? Are they returning the favor? No. Do I benefit from it? Not that I know of. Not directly anyway. That’s part of the problem though. People have lost sight of that selflessness and that sacrificial love that God gifted us with. They have lost trust with themselves and as a result, they’ve lost trust with those around them, even if they haven’t been hurt by these people.
I think that a lot of people think that I’m foolish for wanting this rainbows and roses kind of world. Maybe I’m a bit too positive and optimistic. Maybe I need to be more realistic. Here’s the thing though. I don’t believe that God created us to have so much hostility towards one another. I don’t believe that He wants us to suffer. Not permanently anyway. I think he created us human beings to commune and fellowship with each other. To seek each other for growth, for support, and for comfort. I’m a strong believer that God not only creates these specific circumstances for us to grow in, but that he also places specific people in our paths to help us grow too.
So this brings me back to community. The heart of the issue is, of course, more complicated. But if people really knew how to be supportive of each other for the sake of each other and not for the sake of themselves, our world wouldn’t be as cloudy and gray as some people have drawn it out to be. First step? Taking that leap of faith. We can really prove and manifest God’s love in this world through the people we touch, and even though we can easily do that with people we don’t know, isn’t it sometimes easier to do it with people you know?
Well, we can go into depth later on. Too many holes in that piece. But having a community is so very important, and I really hope our generation can move towards creating more of these for the sake of society.