The hardest spiritual work in the world is to love the neighbor as the self - to encounter another human being no at as someone you can use, change, fix, help, save, enroll, convince or control, but simply as someone who can spring you from the prison of yourself, if you will allow it. All you have to do is recognize another you "out there" -- our other self in the world -- for whom you may care as instinctively as you care for yourself. To become that person, even for a moment, is to understand what it means to die to yourself. This can be as frightening as it is liberating. It may be the only real spiritual discipline there is.
Returning to SITAG has me thinking more about living in community. Here, we can hear each other sneeze from inside our houses and our lives are smushed together whether we like it or not (I like it!). In America, we struggled to break into true community and borrow an egg. Our children's education committee met last week and gave me instant community!
I'm being challenged by what it means to love my neighbor as myself and by what living in community looks like on either side of the Pacific Ocean. What does community look like to you?
2 comments:
Community looks like people from church who invite you over to dinner, friends who host impromptu game nights, and a brother who is there for me when I want to listen to music no one else thinks is cool :)
Sarah, I miss being a part of your community, but I'm so grateful you are finding community where you live now (and I think your brother is a pretty cool guy!).
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