This morning, when I awoke, I could recall the fragments of a dream. It was a dream of a Christian community. My dream's community did not come populated with people already, but it was an idea of community and Christ-like characteristics.
I preface my dream's community description with the statement that I typically avoid community. When people ask for a prayer meeting at church, I scoff since naturally I can pray at home. When there's different events at my church, I mourn the loss of my typical evening activities. Typically, when I hear the "Fellowship of the Believers" passage from Acts 2:42-47, I spurn it because I don't think we could pull it off now-a-days.
Nonetheless, my dream's community was set up much like the boarding houses of old. Each person (or married couple) had their own bedroom, but we shared a kitchen and dining room, as well as a common room/worship area. Meals would be shared and duties would be split. We wouldn't need to individually own many things such as shovels, rakes, leaf-blowers, snow-blowers, lawn-mowers, tools, and dishes, but would instead rely on a community set of each of these. My dream's community had enough extra rooms and places at the table to house guests and strangers.
As I sit writing this, a picture comes to my mind. This community would be housed perfectly in the hotel I stayed in during my Uruguay mission trip.
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| Our hotel had so many of my dream's features |
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| It had a courtyard (ok I didn't dream this, but my hotel had it) |
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| It had a sitting room. |
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| It had a common area, kitchen, and dining area. |
"They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and to fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer. Everyone was filled with awe at the many wonders and signs performed by the apostles. All the believers were together and had everything in common. They sold property and possessions to give to anyone who had need. Every day they continued to meet together in the temple courts. They broke bread in their homes and ate together with glad and sincere hearts, praising God and enjoying the favor of all the people. And the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved." -Acts 2:42-47
For the first time (perhaps ever), this passage sounds desirous to me. My heart is filled with this dream that a small hotel in Uruguay awakened in me.
What is your dream's community? What does living out the Christian faith look like?
The connections with other people would be important to me. Love mom
ReplyDeleteThat sounds lovely. :-)
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