Connection

I live in a U.S. county with traffic problems. It's a peninsula, and what's not swamp land has been developed. Building new roads is difficult and expensive. Making things worse, roads that could connect don't. Pictured is one of my favorite examples. These roads were built to connect, but this moat has remained for at least 24 years. The story I tell myself is that HOAs got involved. I'm probably not wrong.

It's a metaphor for our loneliness culture. We are social beings, made to connect. But connecting opens us to some unwanted traffic. I am trying to manage my own problems. I'm not sure I can carry yours too. My livelihood depends on a carefully crafted brand. What if you discover the image doesn't match reality? And what if your views upset mine?

The truth is we have been set in communities. The world is our community. So is our nation, state, county, province, city, town, or village. We've been set in these communities. Same with our workplace. Then there's our family, extended and immediate. Those of us who are Christ-followers are part of the Church and a church. We also share community with the Father and the Son. For the most part, we don't find these communities or build them. We receive them. Might that shift the way we connect?

In the Old Testament, the nation of Judah was taken captive and exiled to Babylon. God told Judah to receive this new community.

We don't need to put pressure on a received community. A lot of people will never be our closest friends. Some we may never meet, much less know. But we can consider them. We can pray and work for their prosperity. As we do, the traffic we thought was unwanted may become a community-wide blessing. We might find that an interconnected community can carry everyone's troubles without going under. The New Testament calls this koinonia.

There are so many gaps between us, but most are small. We could meet and connect if each side reached out just a little without expecting too much.