Preface: My friends do not take this post as a complaint in anyway, shape or form. I love this city, my job, my housemmates and the current season of crazines that I've found myself in. These are just things that I am currently thinking through. With that being said...
I've been thinkin a great about community. I've realized that I have no idea what community looks like outside of a spiritual one. Spiritual community is really all I've ever known since I was a junior in high school. I had my youth group, Chi Alpha and my South Carolina fam. All that I know about community I've learned from the spiritual aspect. It actually never ever occurred to me that I could be apart of any other type of community until I accepted this internship and moved to L.A-I moved out here to participate in the EUI program because of the appeal to Christian community that it seemed to present. I presumptiously assumed that meant that everyone in the program would be like me (what an absurd assumption I know-I'm actually really embarassed to admit that!)
What happened instead is that I bit off more than I could chew and I've found myself WAY out of my element. This is both good and bad. Good because it's in these places that I thrive & grow & learn the most. Good because it's in these places that I most feel like I meet the Lord face to face and because it's in these places that I'm stretched and pushed to my limits and then some. It's bad because I have a love-hate relationship with change, bad because being pruined and stretched is brutal, painful and downright exhausting. But for those of you who know me, I do enjoy a good challenge :)
So what does it look like to live in community with 7 other people from all walks of life, some of which I could never imagine? What does community look like when spirituality isn't the foundation? How do I go about community with gay housemmates? Some of which know the Bible just as well as I do but have drastically different interpretations? or with abrasive personalities? Where's the line between being bold and being a bigot? What does it look like to be salt and light to those who think they already have "it", to those who are searching but are leary of Christianity (possibly because of a lifestyle conflict) and to those who have just been indifferent to "it" for most their lives? What the heck kind of community am I even living in anyway or has the word community just become one of those over used, trendy, cliche, christian terms that's totally subjective?!
In the midst of all this chaos I hold tight to the fact that absolute truth does exist and from that truth I can in due time find the answers to these questions as God works them out in my head, my heart and my theology. I take comfort in knowing that He is the God who provides and will lead me to the spiritual community that I need to sort through these questions and ultimately help me survive this year semi-intact!
