Communal Living Remixed

I chose this title because I already made a post called Communal Living which will most likely get rewritten/deleted (or already has been, depending on when you’re reading this) when I have more time to sit down and write about it (and with a clearer, more orderly mind). Also, I chose this as a kind of salutation to Empire Remixed, the blog I just discovered and from which I’m going to copy/paste some stuff. The following ’stuff’ is an excerpt from an entry about intentional community. This is what immediately caught my attention, but I would say the rest is worth reading as well. Here is the link.

In the outstretched arms of Jesus on the cross and God in His offering of love, we find a model to emulate in our communities. Intentional community is a choice to open your arms, heart, and life in love and allow the broken to reject you. Though we carry Christ, and in His image are holy and wholly unique, we do not always reflect His beauty.

In our brokenness we choose to hurt each other, we choose bitterness, and we choose a lifestyle that puts a way of having over a way of being. When we choose intentional community, we say to the real people within the community “I am broken. I will let you see my brokenness, and allow the possibility that you may not love me knowing all of this pain.”

Edit: As Tyler pointed out on my Facebook note (it’s a copy/paste of this, except for this edit which I’m making now), the rest of the article is tremendous. I do recommend you read it. Also, I found another authentic, intentional community that seems to seek to be the Kingdom. Link here.

Conviction. Compassion. Jesus screwing up my life. Again.

Crap. I hate stuff like this because it makes me aware that I have not arrived. That there is more to do still. I’m in a state of conviction (not to be confused with guilt, which is conviction’s ugly cousin) about this and about poverty in general. This just makes it feel more real and urgent. It speaks out against the lie that there is plenty of time to deal with that later (preferably when I’m rich). What if Church was like this? What if we lived like this? What if we loved like this?

I was scanning through some older posts and came across this video. This is the link to the original post that I made about it if you are interested in reading my thoughts on the matter. If not, I don’t blame you.

PS: Theresa from next door told me last night that I should change my major to French. I’m a junior and that notion is terrifying. I just might do it. If only I had courage…