Community

Recently I’ve been reflecting on the importance of community.  We are fortunate to live in an area where there are many good, strong communities.The people in a strong community, look out for and care for each other.  A strong community can help our health and wellbeing, it provides a network of relationships in which our children can grow up to realise more of their potential, it is a safety net in times of trouble, and so on.We can all benefit from being part of a strong community, whether that community is on an estate, in the suburb of a town, in a village, through a school, in a workplace, in a sports club, in a church or in a family. 

But community does not just ‘happen’.  It only comes about because of people who invest in community, people who help create that space where people feel welcomed, secure, valued and loved.  Communities, whatever their size, are shaped by the people who give their time, energy, money and love.  In fact, I think all true progress in the world is shaped by people who give in this way.  People like Mother Teresa, Rosa Parks, Martin Luther King, Mahatma Gandhi and many more all had a massive wide-ranging influence on the world.  However, the people that make some of the biggest differences in our lives are people that we know personally.Our lives are shaped by the people we spend time with.  All of us can look back in our lives and see where people have had a positive influence on us – parents, teachers, friends, family.  People who were there for us when we needed them, people who cared enough to notice, people who inspired us, people who encouraged us and saw something in us that, perhaps, we did not see in ourselves. In the busyness of life, we rarely stop to reflect on the people who have poured out their love into our lives with the things they do and say.  That’s how love shows itself in the way it leads us to care for and serve those around us.  We may not make a difference on a global scale, but wherever we are, whatever communities we belong to, we all have a part to play in passing on the love we have received and making a positive difference in those communities.This is one of the things that Jesus did.  He built a community around the love of God by giving and blessing those around him and that love overflowed to the world around that community.  The last thing Jesus came to do was to start another religion.  He came to invite people into the loving community he started.  He invites us to know the love of God for ourselves and challenges and encourages us to share that love with the world around us.So, as we start a new academic year, can I encourage you to pause for a moment, to give thanks for the communities of which you are a part and think of the people that have had a positive influence in your life. Perhaps you could take the time over the coming weeks to thank them for all that they have done.  Doing exercises like this not only encourages those that have helped us, but can also inspire us to reach out and help others… and that all helps to make our communities stronger.Rev Barry Jackson