Yes, but what does it mean?

This new years I spent much of the night talking with my good friends Nate and Stacy.  We got talking about what it means to have a vision and a purpose, and how to define success by those things. We agreed that for the church Nate is preparing to plant in Ohio, that the center of his vision is  the concept of a community.  We were particularly aware of the fact that close knit communities will often have people willing to make sacrifices for others in the community that are far above and beyond what you would normally expect from the relationship the individuals have.  For example, if your a relative's car is in the shop and needs a ride to work, you might get up early, to take them in, then come back home.  It would even be expected because of the relationship you have.  In a close church community though, you may get the same reaction from the person who normally sits next to you, but doesn't ever see you other than on Sunday. Some workplaces have this kind of dynamic, but most don't.  It's a close community that will sacrifice for one another.

We talked a lot about what it takes to build that kind of community and decided that the phrase: "Wherever you are, love well," is critical to building this kind of community.  Not only that, but someone has to model it first, to be willing to risk being ridiculed.  Someone has to be willing risk being taken advantage of.  This is quite simply, because someone must do it first.  The standard has to be set.

This led us to our next question:  How do you measure that?  How do you measure loving well?  What will we see happening around a place where people are actually loving well in every decision and every action.  Don't get me wrong, I'm not suggesting that common sense take a back seat to making the people around you feel "warm fuzzies."  I am suggesting that we can choose to work hard and play hard, and still respect the people around us.  We can take a look at life and seek good times without taking away another's ability to do the same.

Can't we?

-Dave


John 13:35
"By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another."