community

I wonder what our world would look like if we shared? I wonder how many things would be different if those who had, gave to those who didn't? If those who had the great fortune of friends, contacts, stable families and financial resources gave to those who lacked in those areas? What if we opened up our homes, our lives and our wallets for those around us (our neighbors) that we see struggling? I wonder what our world would look like if we really lived that way?

I read yesterday about a distraught family of 7 ending their lives because they couldn't find an answer to what they were going through.

According to police, Tony Lupoe took out a handgun and shot and killed his
eight year old daughter, his five year old twin daughters, his two year old twin
sons, his wife Ana, and himself.

Tony Lupoe had faxed a suicide note of sorts to a Los Angeles television station saying that he and his wife recently lost their jobs as X-ray technicians because they were under investigation for possibly trying to
obtain child-care benefits fraudulently.

So Lupoe believed no one else would hire him and his wife, and they wouldn't be able to support their family.

"In reading the letter," Ross said, "from what I gathered from it, there
was a sense of, that he was reaching out for help. And that reach
for help just couldn't be returned. A feeling of hopelessness, not knowing what to do."

The answer for this family was community. It doesn't really matter if there were other extenuating circumstances, like the father's mental health. The question for me is... where were his friends? Where was his family? Why didn't they have a support system, at least emotionally?

And then I read this today:

Police say a couple and their two children found dead in a suburban Columbus
home are likely the victims of a murder-suicide. Whitehall police say the victims were a husband and wife, their 8-year-old daughter and 5-year-old son. Investigators would not say how they died.

The children were home from school Wednesday for a snow day. A neighbor says the father recently lost his job, and investigators say that may have been a factor in the deaths.

They come a day after police in Wilmington, Calif., found the bodies of a couple and their five children. The father was in debt and had recently been fired; police say he killed his family and himself.

Obviously, there are other issues. And the lack of community can be just as squarely placed on the backs of those who are so distraught. But that really doesn't matter does it? The lie that has been perpetrated more than any other in the States is this one: We don't really need one another.

But we do. We do. We do.

We recently had one of our close Guatemalan friends go to the United States for the first time in his life. We anxiously waited for his report when he returned. "How was it", we asked? "Aren't the streets amazing? Isn't it clean? What did you think about all the big homes, and nice yards? Wasn't it great to be in a country that didn't smell like garbage or diesel? Didn't you feel safe?"

Well, he was nice enough to express an appreciation for what he witnessed, but he also seemed quietly bothered by something. And then he finally said it...

"Everyone there seems so separated. Nobody was walking the streets. No open storefronts and families sitting on porches. Nobody playing outside together. Everyone there seemed like they had everything, but had nothing."

We survive in community here. It is the way we must live. Our community is our Bible studies, our church services, our combined mission events, our caravan trips, our safety and alert communication system, our relay service for goods and services. And we would surely die without one another.

It seems like here in Guatemala, we have nothing, but have everything.

Some of you are completely and authentically living communally with those that God brings into your lives. Not just people from church. But the people around you. God bless you for that. I pray that more people will join you in these hard times.

Let us hold tightly without wavering to the hope we affirm, for God can be
trusted to keep his promise. Let us think of ways to motivate one
another to acts of love and good works. And let us not neglect our
meeting together, as some people do, but encourage one another, especially now
that the day of his return is drawing near.
Holy Bible : New Living Translation.
Heb 10:23-25