{"id":27710,"date":"2021-03-16T12:38:05","date_gmt":"2021-03-16T16:38:05","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/debmillswriter.com\/?p=27710"},"modified":"2021-03-16T12:48:18","modified_gmt":"2021-03-16T16:48:18","slug":"monday-morning-moment-building-and-re-building-community","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/debmillswriter.com\/?p=27710","title":{"rendered":"Monday Morning Moment – Building and Re-building Community"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Just before the start of COVID’s mandate for physical distancing (just a year ago), group video calls were only a thing at work. Not with people in your other life. Not with your community.<\/p>\n

Yet it has become normal now.<\/p>\n

Except for my family, no other people have been in my living room in a year. That is staggering for me to register…even now. This room\"\"<\/a>was made for people…like my heart is. It’s been a strange year.<\/p>\n

Community isn’t gone. It has changed. It is just as precious and just as vital to healthy, flourishing living.<\/strong>\"\"<\/a>\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

One day many of these and other dear ones will gather again around our table and sprawl around our living room. I’ll be so glad.<\/p>\n

Until then, we do what we can with video calls, cards and phone calls, and physically distanced visits in yards and driveways.<\/p>\n

Community is not cancelled, just challenged.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Right now I’m plowing through a book by Sarah, Sally, and Joy Clarkson<\/a>. Girls\u2019 Club \u2013 Cultivating Lasting Friendship in a Lonely World<\/em><\/a>. “Plowing through” because the messages are deep and thought-provoking. Good for the soul and great for kick-starting community.\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Sally Clarkson<\/a>\u2019s daughter Sarah<\/a> writes about creating community. She references the great “love chapter” in the Bible (1 Corinthians 13<\/a>). In this text we are reminded what love looks like. Sarah goes on to talk about how she incorporates the character of love in growing community.\u00a0 In the coming aftermath of COVID – can you hear my hope? – three keys to building and rebuilding community come to bear:<\/p>\n

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  1. Remember and rekindle<\/strong> – We have all known community, hopefully at its fullest. A place of being known and loved, just as we are. A place where we can serve and be served. A place of rest also. Post-COVID, our culture will be changed, but our need for community will not be changed. In fact, we may need it even more, but will we go after it? This is where we must rekindle, as Sarah puts it, our vision to reach out to one another in meaningful ways.<\/li>\n
  2. Renew and revitalize<\/strong>. Community takes effort and intentionality. We don’t have to do all the work ourselves nor is it even wise to do so. Find partners, neighbors, like-minded people who will add their own gifts and energy to the process. My husband and I actually live in a neighborhood with such folks. What a joy it is to know we are there for each other and will show up, regularly, when there is a need…or just for the pleasure of it.\u00a0\u00a0 \"\"<\/a>\"\"<\/a>[Memorial Day parade in our neighborhood; May, 2020]<\/li>\n
  3. Really love and rejoice over each other. <\/strong>Community is not a project. It is a way of life, a mindset, a worldview. People matter. Life is short. When we truly invest in one another, our lives are enlarged. Both the giver and the receiver. I have missed the ease of pre-COVID community. I took it for granted. Now I value it more than ever. Hopefully it is a lesson that won’t be easily forgotten. Hopefully we go after community like never before, having learned in a hard way how much we need it.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    [The section below is retrieved from one of my recent blogs<\/a>.]<\/p>\n

    In the book above, Sarah<\/a> also writes a chapter entitled Saturday Mornings: The Girls\u2019 Club Prototype. <\/em>In this chapter, she describes \u201cfive progressive actions\u2026central to the powerful cultivation of friendship\u201d. They are imperative in building and rebuilding community as well:<\/p>\n