Our church is in the middle of a study that covers many aspects of the Christian life. We have come upon the aspect, from my perspective, of community. This is a passion of mine, as I am a firm believer of doing life with other people. Doing life with people is the process of knowing others and being known by others. Being in relationship with people who say the things that need to be said but you may not want to hear and you return the favor for them. It is people who know your faults and they love you anyway but at the same time they challenge you to grow beyond your flaws. I have really come to believe that community is one way God does some of his best work in and through me.
The sad thing to me is that doing life with others is not something our culture encourages or even creates a lot of opportunity for. In fact, I think it works against it in some ways.
Our current cultures is all about fast, and a give it to me now attitude. We have microwaves, almost every kind of instant food you can think of, drive thru’s, 24-hour pharmacies and grocery stores, instant messaging, overnight delivery, faxing and email. Don’t get me wrong I l love these things, but if I am using things designed to get it done faster why do I have so much less time?
I wonder if these things designed to save us time actually make us busier because we feel like we have saved so much time, so we can do more. I am not sure that was the goal of these so-called time saving activities. I think quite the opposite is true that we need to do less. This always-need-to-be-doing-something-because-the-more-busy-I-am-the-more-I produce-the-better-I-must-be-attitude is not so conducive to doing life with anyone.
Doing life with others when you are traveling a hundred miles an hour is difficult. I learned this the hard way, I missed a lot of my life by being so scheduled I had no time to do things that just popped up. I also missed moments. You know the moments in life that are special and usually they show up in your life unannounced and unscheduled. But being busy and scheduled it was hard to be in the moment and enjoy them, because I had to be conscience of the next thing I had to get to or get done. The thing about moments is, that once they are gone, they are gone.
I think it’s in those moments that God can do much in and through me and I do not want to miss them. I want the chance to do life with others. This was such a timely reminder to me as I just this weekend sat across the table from a dear friend and actually said, “I’m starting think I am not doing enough with my life and that I need to do more.” Even as I wrote those words I laughed out loud. What a bald-face-lie-from-the-pit-of-hell. My friend reminded me of this. She also reminded me that even so called “good things” could keep me so busy I miss the moments of my life. I was also reminded, some of the best moments I have had, in doing life with others aren’t the ones I plan or schedule. But they happen when I am not looking. I have strengthened my resolve to keep busy at bay, so I can take advantage of them when they show up.
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