COMMUNITY: What it teaches me.

I just recently finished watching the movie Into the Wild. I found the movie to be really really cool, so cool it actually made me want to drop out of seminary and wander around the country for a while. (Obviously, the fact that I am writing this blog displays I didn't actually follow through with my desires.) The whole theme of the movie was built upon the thought that people don't need other people to be happy or to have meaning and purpose. It was on that presupposition that the main character in the movie, Christopher McCandless, heads out with nothing and ultimately arrives in the wilderness of Alaska all alone. I don't want to ruin the movie for anyone that hasn't seen the film, but it was out of that theme I began to think about what purpose community serves and why we are so drawn to each other. (By the way, if you do rent the movie, it has some language and nudity in it....just fyi.)



As a self proclaimed "new comer" to the theological thought surrounding the Trinity I have found that many trinitarian attributes and functions of God are on full display for us daily. Most likely an equal amount of the trinitarian evidences take a little bit more effort to discover. Of all the possible discussions that we could release on this blog about the nature of God I find the most enjoyable aspect to be community. For the purpose of this discussion, I am most directly thinking of the community of friendship and family.

I have found that in my 18 years as a follower of Christ, my greatest understandings and awarenesses of God, his nature, his character, and his love have been revealed in and through community. It is the talks with my father about faith that have brought me perspective and insight. It is the time spent crying with my mother that has allowed me to better understand compassion and comfort. It is the enjoyment and accountability of true friendship that has pushed me to be more disciplined, more faithful, more selfless.....and the list goes on. And if I take a moment and step back, I realize this enjoyment and satisfaction that i receive from community is intended and desired by God and even more so an innate quality of who He is! It is through the interrelationships of the trinity, that is the mutual indwelling of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, that we see the greatest and most perfect community on display.

Now I am sure that over the next few weeks more pointed and in depth discussions will take place of easy and not so easy topics dealing with the Trinity, but I wanted to make it clear as my first post that we desperately need each other (community). The movie, Into the Wild, was a great testimony to that simple truth. Since the creation of earth, God saw fit that we were not to be alone but to have community (Adam and Eve). At the crux of history, as Jesus in his human flesh bled on the floor of the Garden of Gethsemane, he made it known to us that we are in desperate need of community. As the Holy Spirit worked in the lives of the early church in Acts, we were reminded of our need for community. At the core of the God of the universe we find community. So in our quest as students, teachers, friends, family, husbands, and wives let us not forget that God created us so that we may have community with one another in order that we may know and enjoy Him more.

For if we have to go into the wild alone to figure that simple truth out, we have completely missed the nature of our God.

-r