Developing a Community Spirit

One of the things we so often ignore is that we are part of a community. We have responsibilities to the community we live in, for things we do and don’t do. Our involvement can have both negative and positive effects on the community we live in. Some Christians think that they have no responsibility to the world around them, and only have a responsibility to the church, but the truth is that we live in a global community and we are responsible for our neighbor’s situation. God cares about the entire world; not just our little corner of it. We need both a local and global perspective. It is difficult to know much about our neighbors unless we get to know them. As a society, I think we have become too isolationist and ignore the needs of the people around us. We see the pain and suffering around us on the news, but mostly people do nothing about it. We need to do an audit on our time and finances, and see what we are doing for others. Or, to see if we spend everything we have on ourselves.
Television has made us voyageurs of the world’s problems. We spend time looking, but make no personal commitment to actually doing something about it. If I may be so bold, may I ask you, “What percentage of your personal resources are spent to help others outside of your family circle?” Do you care that the cost of a cup of coffee could save someone’s life?” Not that you should not buy the coffee, but how about symbolically buying a second cup for your poor global neighbor. We need to share our resources with the entire world, not just greedily consume all we can for ourselves.
I do not write this to make people guilty, for guilt does nothing but make people feel bad. I am writing this to motivate you and myself to get more actively involved in the community around us. It is sad to lead an entire life that is only focused on ourselves and our needs. Let’s really love the people around us and sacrifice for them. We are all children of God, and our neighbors are our brothers and sisters. Let’s not be negligent toward our extended family. As it is written in the Bible, “As we have opportunity, let us do good to all people” (Galatians 6:10).