on a dream of community.....

i watched two love stories yesterday, both unexpectant in ending and both quite thought provoking- Moulin Rouge and Shakespeare In Love, and unwillingly, i watched the end of another today- My Girl. all three explored the tender heart of human relationships, and explored the vulnerability that we endure on that journey- one relationship impossible, one returned but second to honouring a covenant of marriage, and another a life sculpting friendship that ends in tradegy but is remembered with beauty.

the one question that always courses through my mind is 'how does this play out in real life?', or even still, 'is this kind of relationship really obtainable?'. i wonder how much the media has hyped the glory of relationships, and forgotten the hardships and awkard stumblings of the human nature. movies like crash and 21gramms explore in depth the broken vulnerability that we carry [and almost benefit from] when we gently reveal ourselves to those we love-and this is much closer to reality than the unbalanced view of love that we get from the Walt Disney classics, and the even more so unbalanced view of the Bridget Jones duet that airs on the side of ridiculous: but warms our hearts because we know that there are so many elements of the unrealistic in so much of hollywood.

i have a love story in my life right now that is more beautiful than i ever expected, and more fulfilling than i ever realised. i have someone who is so hung up on me that he teeters on the side of insanity, but the beauty of that is that, as much as it seems crazy to me, it is actually normal to him. for us, to think that someone would love us so much that they were willing to be brutally murdered and endure more in the spiritual realm than we can ever think of, would be out of the question. i would like to bargain that there is a minority of the population of our western world that would give their lives for another, truely. but for him, this insane and unrelenting love is comepletly normal.

but beyond all this love from God is another incredible gift. human relationships. not only did God give us an opportunity to be intimately aquainted with Him, but He also gave us friends, family and partners. He loves us so much that He gives us more than just Himself, but He also gives Himself through the medium of others.

the body, in the form of our churches, is designed as an incubator for these relationships-where we get to test drive how we work out our inhibitions, passions and visions with each other, graciously and awkwardly, for the rest of our lives. but it doesn't always work out this way when the troubles of this world get interwound into the way that we are supposed to live, so much so that the body suffers, and our relationships end up tainted and genetically modified by the world. we end up giving only to our needs and birthing a generation that is spiritually autistic-unable to connect their faith with their life.

compartmentalisation is the love child of selfish desires.

community is brutally tainted by the enticing passions that this world so generously gives.

the solution?

without vision, the people perish

i think, we have to have a vision for community by studying the Word, the advice that Paul gives and the model that Jesus painted, to look at other cultures besides our own and feed from their wisdom. and above all, i think time will tell. for those that have a vision of what they know community is meant to look like, to model that.

we have to lead by example.

people don't change overnight. and if one person cannot change overnight, neither can a whole group. Love, joy, peace, patience, kindess, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self control. these are the fruits of the Spirit-the things that will gently nurture and grow community as we desire it.

patience-the great virtue of community.

and in living out this patience and step by step vision that takes time and patience and the Fruits of the Spirit, we endure with one another, and ourselves walk and work out love in community.

the great thing about Moulin Rouge, My Girl and Shakespeare in Love is that they inspire us and feed our dreams of how we desire to live-the love that will go to no ends to serve another, the friendship that shapes the ways to come, and the love between two people that inspires and ignites vision and passion that God so beautifully placed within us.