We Are All In This Together

I opened my emails this morning like I usually do while I am waiting for my coffee to brew. I scan through them and then usually get my coffee and begin my devotionals. Today I opened one from my dad regarding having a lock box or not for my valuables in my tent. You see, he had seen the pictures that I posted on Face Book yesterday and noticed that my Care Package boxes were under the shelving and not secured.

My parents along with Catherine have recently sent me several packages some holding Christmas gifts and such for me. The mail is unreliable so you have to send things early. With as little space as we have the only place I could put the boxes is under the bed and under the shelves. In my mind as secure as place as any other. I never thought, in all the time here, about the fact that I had anything valuable and that I should secure it. Not once. Even when I went on R&R I put all of my stuff in the foot locker and zip tied it but only in case I did not return it would be ready to ship home if needed.

I have just mostly figured that whatever I had, if somone needed it that badly that they had to steal it then they could have it. To this point, as far as I can tell, nothing of mine is missing. I guess this also plays into the small community setting and where maybe my mind is focussed, that whatever I have I will share with the others as needed. You actually see it alot, people offering things up to others if somone else doesn't have something. Maybe it is that we all figure we are in the same boat that we don't so much feel our possesions are anything special.

I think when everybody is primarily equal in circumstance then pride and covettness don't factor in as much. Maybe I am wrong but I have heard very little about theft in any camp I have been in. You do see that big things become the issue however. People that want to be in a CHU so badly that it just envelops them as to every descsion on who gets in and who doesn't. Vehicles are also a hot item for this, which department got the new truck and which don't have any. I will even tell you that I have taken a lot of bashing from my Boss that I lone out our truck to other Departments when we don't need it. He hates doing "favors" because people take advantage of the situation.

So back to the issue. I never felt I had anything valuable so therefore I didn't feel that it was necessary to protect it. I never felt that somone else was going to take my things so that I had to keep them safe. I only felt that all of us had little and what little we have should be shared. See, our attitude and perspective is what is important. If I feel that mine is better than yours then I veruy easily may think that you want mine. If that is the case then I must protect what I have. When neither is better, nothing needs protected. Don't get me wrong, I am sure that the gift that my parents have sent will be nice, and I appreciate whatever it is, but how far should that go.

You can draw a lot from this simple subject. Big houses, lots of stuff. Precious items and items of value all stored and locked away from those people on the outside that want it. It is mine and they can't have it so I will just lock it away. Neighborhoods are designed this way, for privacy and some even lock themselves off from the outside with gates and fences. Even in our houses we have the this is mine and that is yours senerio. Humans very readily, even in the Church, distinguish themselves by differences and seperate because of them. We are not immune from the problem.

I have said for a while that the reason the Gospel is spreading so readily in the Third World Countries is because the have Small Community. They are in very similar situations as I am in in my tent. Each village and town has developed on a dependance with each other person there. One grows rice and the other makes baskets, they need each other. The houses are the same and and the conditions are the same, noone better off than the other. So when one member has something like the Word of God to share, then he shares it, and each one benefits as they come together. In some cases they all take the same risks in seeking their Faith in Jesus Christ.

Ultimately, if we all realize that we were placed here by God to honor and glorify Him and that all things are given to us by Him then our perspec tive starts to come to the right point. If we go further and realize that we are to Love our neighbor as ourselves then we begin to take what God has given us and share it in the correct ways. We realize that love does not want, and therefore we know we don't need to protect our stuff from others. One little step more and then we realize that together we will have more than we would ever have seperate, and that with God at the center of that we are blessed, then we have the essence of the Small Community.

I believe in small community. I wonder how this would ever work in America, how we could even get it to work in our Church. But I will tell you that it is a better place for us to be, as Christians and people. To be free of the burdon of having to worry about my stuff is tremendous. To know that I can accept my neighbor as myself and share everything with them including the Gospel in heavenly! This realization is a blessing.

So here is the challenge, to think of how you can create more of a Small Community around yourself. What things can you change to begin to develop what Jesus and the Apostles taught us, to be in the perspective of Godliness. You have to start somewhere so don't look at your nieghbor or spouse, start with yourself. Invite others to share your life with you and your family. Open your house for someone in need, heck, open it for a small group once a week. The point is to get past the fact that you think that you have anything better, nicer or bigger that is so important that you can't share it in some fashion with others. Give everything that you can, pour in as much as you can to those around you, in every moment that you can.

Lord, open our hearts and remove the fear of living with others. Remove the things that cause us to seperate and hide. Remove the pride that we have for the things that we have, the position or place. Let us just focus on the fact that this is all yours, and that you may do with it what you will. that we are only to love our nieghbors as you love us.