A blog entry has been well over due, and as I sit melting in a humid sauna-esque communication centre in northern Ghana, I still feel the love of community thousands of miles away, and the need to write something here, on this attempt at a blog.
The year commitment we all made in August of last year is gradually coming to an end. I have already parted ways with our home at 215 North Avenue, and others too, will soon disperse, as some study abroad, some visit schools, and some just simply move on. But a friend of mine once expressed his thoughts on community by saying that community is not locational. And I believe that to be true, more now, at the end of our months living together, than I did the first day I carried the few boxes of my belongings into the north avenue home.
The months in our house were often times rough. Sometimes tense. Sometimes awkward. Lots of times uncomfortablly humbling. But most of all, life changing. I believe we all wrestled with ourselves, eachother, and God, as we trudged through a thick fog of unknown. I, personally, was forced to see the lack of love I had in my life. I was challanged daily, to not just talk the talk, but discover what walking looks like. I realized I needed to begin by crawling, because I definitely did not know how to walk.
Andy, Dustin, Miller, Potter, Raven, and Renee still continue to love and live together. I believe Brent is working in south Georgia, and I am currently in West Africa. But community, and love, and the body of Christ that unites us all, is never locational, and that excites me.
Before I left the house last month I wrote something to try and encompass a bit of life in our house. Enjoy:
well its sunday afternoon and we just finished our lunch
Raven's making sweet tea, or some special julip punch
Dustin's on a hanging spree with hammer and nails in hand
and Brent is contemplating the politics of some far off distant land
Andy just got back from playing guitar for those lovers of st. mary
Miller grabs her bible and yells, bye, i'm off to berry
Renee is sharing about the kids she lovingly feeds each day
and Potter's playing piano singing psalms that drift away
I'm brewing us some coffee, caffiene is what we're needing
cuz in less than thirty minutes we'll start another house meeting
well, Raven's writing down everything we mention and discuss
Frannie and the water bill and we're all trying not to fuss
Dustin listens intently, drawing a diagram of his propsed plan
Andy leans against the wall nodding, saying 'i understand'
Miller sighs, swinging her feet, and says lets not forget to love
Brent slowly sips his coffee he brewed in his kitchen up above
Potter hugs her knees, quoting Mother Teresa or even Jesus
Renee brings us back on point, 'what can these issues teach us?'
our discussions wander to and fro, we straddle the loving fence
and i'm off to make stronger coffee, cuz comminity is pretty tense
the sun is setting quickly and our stomachs must be fed
tonight its a Tommey-tuna-mix, with cheese on toasted bread
Andy stirs the gravy, Dustin's heating up the peas
Miller's all excited cuz we bought pepper jack cheese
Raven grabs the plates, Renee's getting the water
Brent has a pillow, frantically chasing Potter
I hear someone at the door, I wonder who it could be
opening the door I'm met with Frannie jumping up on me
'no time to play, girl, its time for us to eat'
and then I put the half chewed shoes back on my feet
its tense and tough, and its often hard to love even those with whom we live
the bills, the dishes, the dinners, the simple opinions we always give
small things with great love, is not a big thing in disguise
its listening, its humbling, its learning compromise
its letting go, its emptying, its giving your time away
its never big or noticeable, and thats how it should stay.
living together is a small thing, there's nothing great about it
but great love fills this place, we couldn't survive without it.
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