How many times do we drive home, and try to make it into our house without talking to our neighbors? How often do we see someone at a grocery store and then turn and go down another row to avoid them? Why is that we avoid community so? Can you imagine if we lived our lives desiring to live outside ourselves and to be willing to live for others? Can you imagine what we could do if we are united?

We forget how much and often people need to be encouraged. We should strive to look for different and creative ways to encourage people. Dale Carnegie once said that, “Remembering a persons name is to that person the sweetest and most important sound in any language.” Kindness is never overlook, and you can never have enough of it. Jesus cherished everyone whether they were a little child or a tax collector in a tree they all mattered to Him. When our passion becomes love, we will start to give strength and nourishment to those around us. St. Augustine puts it this way, “A community is a group of people united by the common objects of their love.” In love is unity; if we desire to stay united we must fill ourselves with love, seeking and following the common goal of understanding what it means to not be a Christian but to be a disciple of Jesus. In California the great redwood trees can only reach incredible heights, because they all depend on each other to keep them steady. Real and honest love is crucial for us to be sustained and to be balanced, this love is found in authentic community. We live and thrive of love. We must also allow ourselves to be loved as well, to realize that we are chosen. Receiving love is just as important as giving it. As we began to care for people, as we start to see and feel what its like to really love, our passion becomes to live as Christ lived, Jesus didn’t just call his disciples to be Christ like, he called them to be little Christ, to be imitations of him. Community is like a puzzle as we began to put together the pieces the picture gets a whole lot clearer and we see that it’s a picture of Jesus. When we come to this place it is then that we began to get a taste of what true community is about.