The Power of Place
We live in a world where we can travel the world, move on a whim, and are no longer confined to our current location. This is a gift, but are there unforeseen consequences?
I have been reading a book called The Power of Place, and it has me thinking and pondering about our world, the culture we live in, and how we define community.
I have been wrestling with a few questions: what if the freedom we have gained through the affluence we have to access today is more of a detriment to our soul than a benefit? What is the freedom to move around the world has significant consequences for our soul?
The Bible defines community as requiring deep, sacrificial commitment. A commitment that requires us to lean into the hard, not run away from it. A commitment that requires us to esteem the other as more signficant than our selves. It is a commitment that leads us to mutual submission to each other.
As I consider my experience in church, that is not the love and commitment that we pervasively offer to our world. It is not the commitment to unity that Jesus prayed for in John 17 and the first church modeled in Acts 2.
As I read The Power of Place, I am engaging with and getting excited about the benefits of being rooted and established in a deep commitment to a community. Yes, it will require sacrifice, but what if the investment of sacrifice helps us achieve what our souls are starving for?
Living rooted in a place with the people in that place produces loyalty, connection, and intimacy in friendship that we were created to experience and give to others to experience. As a fellow Jesus follower, you are much more than a fellow church attender. Jesus tells us in Mark 3:33 that we are family!
That may be a messy word, but through the abiding presence of the Holy Spirit, God wants us to experience familial love in the way he designed it to be. As our heavenly Father, he will equip us to live, love, engage in conflict, encourage, equip, and significantly contribute to each other's lives in all aspects. You see, God is interested in using the stability of living rooted in place to help us live and experience the abundant life he has promised us.
Traveling the world is flashy and exciting, but living committed in community as God teaches brings stability in a rootless age—stability that empowers steadfast faith, deep love and commitment, and the ability to know and be known! That thing the world is longing to figure out is at our fingertips. The question is, will I commit to being present?