Christmas and Community
Starting one’s blog on Christmas Day lends itself to reflection at the end of every year. December 25 is one of those days that never gets by without being noticed. I began in 2006 by combining reflections on a SciFi movie and a hymn, a sort of foreshadowing of the Smidgin’s current tagline: “an eclectic collection.” Despite the odd combination, however, the message was relevant: we are not meant to live for ourselves.
My reflection the next year was short, but focused on a variation of the same theme. We are not meant to live for ourselves, and thus Christ died for us that we might follow Him.
This year my Christmas thoughts come a bit early, as I prepare to leave for a European tour over the holidays. While I’m very excited about the trip (Berlin, Prague, Munich, Basel, Paris), it does mean Christmas away from the family and the (home) church. The reason this is dissapointing is not that I like to get gifts or feel obligated to attend service on Christmas Eve, but that times of rememberance like Christmas are meant to be celebrated in community, because we are not meant to live for ourselves.
Since leaving college, the need for community has become much more apparent to me. College is, as they always tell you and you never believe, a contrived environment in which everything is provided for you if you just step out of the door of your dorm and take it. After college, in a new city, you realize that if you want community you have to go out and find it. We are not meant to live for ourselves, but we still have to purposefully live around and for others if we want to be in community.
Sometimes, often, usually this can be hard to do. It’s hard to get up in a new city and go to Church on Sunday. It’s hard to get out in the evenings and visit people. But when we do so, and place ourselves in the community around us, we are living as humans are meant to live: around others.
During the past months, I have been blessed to live with my loving parents again, to work with wonderful people, to visit many churches (and hopefully settle into one of them), and to get to know some good friends better. Community is a wonderful thing, and I am very thankful for it.
This season, live in community. Merry Christmas!
