Community

Lately, I have been reading  The Irrestible Revolution by Shane Claiborne.  If you've never heard of him, among other things, he is one of the founding members of the simple way, a group of believers that have converted abandoned and unused spaces in inner city Philadelphia into a community.  The community functions as "real community", sharing resources, living together, buying only what is necessary, following the principle of "live simply so others may simply live" and enjoying doing life together.  He encourages others to live as Jesus commanded- to take care of widows and orphans, to love the sick and the hurting.  I love the fact that his ideals aren't just ideals to him.  He spent time in Calcutta with Mother Theresa loving orphans, he went to Iraq and preached love in a place of hate and fear.  This book (which really has a lot of scriptural basis) made me question much of the way I and most Americans live.  Not so much in a guilty kind of way, but in a "were are totally missing out on the kind of life that God wants us to have".  I'll probably be blogging some more about many of the issues that were brought to my attention through reading, but I'll leave with one of my favorite quotes from the book about unity of believers "We've got to unite ourselves as one body.  Because Jesus is coming back, and he's coming back for a bride, not a harem."