by Tiffany Bentley

It's a word that we misuse on a daily basis, though it's also something we claim to have achieved. It's an "easy step" in our lives, something that happens naturally. We put it on the shelf, we mark it off our checklist. Done. Accomplished. Out of the way. And we move on.

But community is more than what we have made it out to be, and more important than we comprehend. It is more than showing up, more than talking, more than listening (even though these all play a part in the process). Community is connection. And what better to connect one heart to another than a mutual love for God and, through him, a genuine concern for each other. We fool ourselves if we think, even for a breath, that he is not the thread that bonds us. If one heart breaks, they all should. I am not advocating that we absorb each others problems, but rather, that we be aware of them and offer encouragement in the purest, least self fulfilling way possible. Self righteousness is not love, even though it can convince us other wise. Good intentions can be all too easily twisted if they are not offered from a place of understanding. The challenge is to support each other not by our own strength, but by the strength of God. Without him as the foundation for our relationships we are crumbling towers. We are the charred debris of a barricade. We are tiny scraps of a carefully rendered portrait.

This is more than a place to socialize. How we interact with and regard each other is crucial. We use the analogy of war a lot in the church: "We are soldiers of God, the world is a battlefield for the soul". But do we believe it? Do we fight for each other?

Our lives are not a game. We can no long hide behind the mask of being a child. There is a time to be serious.

The greatest defense against darkness is light. And we have a way to access that light. We have God.

And he desires to see a community established in light.