Community: The Benefit of Locality

One of the many great attributes to our college group weeks is that volunteers are from many places that not only span the entire United States but the entire world. It always intrigues me what life is like in other parts of the country and other parts of the world, so I try to hold back all assumptions about people and where they're from while still inquiring about what life is like for them in those areas.

This previous week I was touched when talking with a volunteer who had spent time living in Ethiopia, Russia and Germany (as well as the United States). Of course I asked the typical questions, why the move? how long did you live in each place? etc. But I was more touched when I commented that it was cool that this particular volunteer had the opportunity to see the world in so many ways and so many places. I think it is extremely beneficial to spend a week or two on an immersion in a foreign place (domestic or abroad), and so I assume that having the opportunity to live in different countries for a prolonged period of time would be even more beneficial. That benefit wasn't negative, but when I made the comment that having that experience was great the response was that it is beneficial but very challenging because of the difficulty to form really great friends. I quickly realized that I am extremely lucky to have grown up in Cincinnati my entire life, to have grown up with the same people and to have people that I could call best friends. It became quite evident that while living in different places gives us great experience for life, it also inhibits our ability to form those very strong friendships and to build that sense of community in our lives.

Today's scripture readings call us to focus our lives on what is really important. Clearly Lent is a beneficial time to do such a thing. I thought those themes can be clearly connected to this theme of friendship and community. Take some time this week to reflect on the things that you hold dear in your life. Should those things be as high of a priority as they are? Are there other things that should be a higher priority instead? Make a list of these things if you can/ have to. I would hope that your closest friends are on the higher end of that list. Give thanks for the blessing of those friendships and work to continue to build that sense of community this Lent.