All by myself...don't wanna be all by myself...

Alone

Nobody wants it.  Nobody likes it.  Think about it like this: in prison (a place of punishment) in order to punish you further they put you by yourself for some period of time.  Then when you have met their requirements they do not release you from prison, but from solitary confinement. 

Now, I need my alone time just like anybody else.  I need time to think, I need time to reflect, I need silence, and that doesn't usually happen in a room with 100 people in it.  I like alone time, as long as it is the exception and not the rule, as long as it happens once a day and not everyday.  

Whether we know it or not we all desperately crave community.  We all want to know and be known by people.  To borrow something from iRobot (a movie starring Will Smith, which I am embarrassed to say that I own) we want to gather together.  We don't want to be off by ourselves.  We don't want to do life by ourselves.  Community is vital and essential to our growth.  

Most of the New Testament is not written to individuals, but to churches as a whole ("To the saints in...").  It is in these letters that we find the means of spiritual growth.  Let me suggest that we could be missing something by reading and applying them solely to our personal lives and not to our community lives?  

Let me say it like this: Those letters were written to gatherings of believers not study by themselves, but to work out collectively.  

Or like this: spiritual growth happens can happen individually, but MUST also happen in community with other believers.  

There it is written into the very fabric of the New Testament, the very way it is written, is our need to do life deeply with each other.  Growth happens on a limited basis individually, but for it to deeply transform us to be more like Christ we must do it together.  

So what does that mean?  Great Question!

It means that we do like Jesus said in John 13.35 and let the world know who we are by our love for each other.  Practically, it means when there are needs you provide for them.  Practically, that means that you don't wait around for needs, but (in a non-busybody way) you go looking for needs that you can solve.  You help, you serve, you listen, you love.  

Love is sometimes hard because it calls us to do uncomfortable things.  Like for example if you see a brother or sister overtaken in sin you don't throw down the "Dwight Schrute Shun Shield".  You come alongside of them, let them know you love them, and walk with them out of it.  You don't run from them, you run to them.  

It also means that you (and I) need people that we can be totally open, honest, and genuine with, people who will help meet needs, people who will listen and not talk, and people who love you enough to tell you when you're wrong.  

Incidentally, this is what we are talking about this Saturday (10/4/2008) at 6:30 at a worship gathering I lead at our church called Saturday Night.