January 19, 2003: Fostering Community

As missionaries my wife and I were often asked, "So how do you like Colombia?" It was hard to answer, because frankly we weren't in Colombia because we liked it. We were there to translate the Bible. As for liking it, well, Colombia was not in our top ten list of places where we wanted to retire.

But after returning to the U. S. I realized one thing I missed about Colombia: the sense of community. You knew all your neighbors there. You played soccer in the street with them. When the daughter of the neighborhood orange peddler got sick, you pitched in to buy her medicine. Community life had the feel of "Sesame Street" or "Mr. Roger's Neighborhood."

At home in the U. S. I have found it harder to get to know people. Our affluence and technology make it easy to avoid them. You don't have to see your neighbor's face when you come home: your garage door opener gets you inside without having to step out of the car. You don't have to ask anybody for directions: get them off MapQuest. You don't talk to a gas station attendant: swipe your credit card, fill up the tank and go. And your kids never organize themselves into baseball teams in the park any more - their thumbs are too calloused anyway from the video game buttons they've been pressing alone in their rooms.

We have to work harder than our Colombian counterparts to foster community. Psalm 133:1 says, "How good and pleasant it is when brothers live together in unity!" That unity is more than peaceful co-existence - it involves some actual contact.

Let me encourage you this week to say hello to a neighbor, or call a friend you haven't seen in a while, or just do something - anything - to take a bold step forward against the isolating winds of modern culture that tend to blow us into sad little corners all by ourselves.