What’s So Beloved About Community (Week 3)
May 24, 2011
(Make sure that you’ve posted and responded to the first two weeks posts before continuing with this week.)
I have thoroughly enjoyed reading all of your comments and thoughts the past couple weeks. Thank you for being honest with your responses and dialoguing with each other.
Here are the questions for this week:
What is something that stuck with you from the reading this week? Or something that grabbed your attention and made you think? What are some ideas from this chapter that we should consider as we live in community this summer in Downtown Canton?
What’s a community that you feel connected to and loved by? How do you feel connected to this community? What are the things that make this community good? What are things that could be done (either by yourself or by others) to make the community even better?
My favorite story out of this chapter is Anne’s story. She makes some really great observations about what other people are teaching her through the way that they live. What is something that you have learned recently from someone through the way that they live?
For this Sunday, we will be reading Chapter 4 together so make sure that you have your book with you Sunday morning! Looking forward to more discussion…hope you are having a wonderful week 
Two things that stuck out to me this week were the story on the color grey. Because early me and my friend were talking about how grey is beautiful. Also in that same story how some strang person asked the dude to drop his baby Joel and then he did and Joel was saved. This showed me how stange people just randomly appear in our lives for a reason and we have to trust them.
A community I feel loved by is my track team at school. Some things that made us close is we all went though the same things and had a comman goal. We lifted each other up when we fell or felt down and we all had fun together. One thing I could of done better is maybe spent time with my team outside of track.
Something I learned from someone by the way they live would have to be from my orchestra teacher. She doesn’t have much money but that doesn’t stop her from using her gifts(playing the stringed instruments) and she always invests her time in us and we all feel loved by her. This shows me that we are all people and can love people the same even if we dont have a lot of money
I love how we both spelled gray ‘grey.’
The part that stood out to me was the man saving Joel. It stood out to me because, a neighbor will help you in a bad situation even if it isn’t ideal for them. You can trust them with yourlife as well as the life of someone you love.
A community that I feel loved in is swim team. I feel connected because we have some of the same goals and we are going through the same things. This is good because we are supportive of each other. I feel that it is an amazing community, but we should do more things together even in off season.
Something I’ve learned from someone by the way that they lived was from my friend. He plays many instruments and is very talented. People sometimes pick on him because of this, but he still uses his talents and is proud of them. I’ve learned that you shouldn’t care as much about what people think of you, but you should do all that you can for those who are mean to you.
I think that is sooooo true when you said that a reason you feel connected to your swim team is because you all have the same goal that you are trying to reach. I think that it is easier to feel connected to someone when you have the same purpose in life, because you can relate to them and give them advice because of your own experiences.
I think it’s crazy how that one guy had to trust the other guy and just drop his son out the window. Sometimes we need to just let go and let other people do something or everything will go up in smoke.
I agree when you said you shouldn’t care about what others think of you because its important to show who you really are and to use the abilities God has given each of us.
I think it brave that the man trusts this guys
to catch Joel, and your right neighbors will
help you during bad times.
One thing that stuck out to me is wondering wether or not Jesus would dive a car to help people when they got a flat or if he would ride a bus to mingle and preach. A community I feel loved in is the group of people that show up from around the neighborhood in the winter to play hockey on our homemade rink. Even though we don’t know each other all that well we all join together to have fun, lift each others spirits, and give a friendly check into the surrounding snow. There are not many ways that we could make it better other than inviting some of them to church.
Something I have learned from someone recently by the way they live, I learned from my grandfather he is always helping us peruse the things we want to do in life making us believe we can do them never giving up.
Noah…That community sounds real cool. I hope that at some point you find an opportunity to maybe invite one or two of those friends to an event at the church and maybe stretch that community even further!
I liked when it said that sometimes when horrible things happen, people want so badly to trust God. But sometimes, it is sooooo hard to do so because we are all caught up in bad memories of the past and and all we can think about is blaming God for what happened. I think that in Canton we need to reach out to people who once believed in God, but can’t find it in them to trust him again.
My community are my neighbors. They make a great community because they are alway there for me, and I know that they will keep my secrets. One thing that would make things better is if we all try to encourage each other more often, but we also have a lot of fun making fun of each other! =)
I haven’t really learned something from someone lately, but one thing I do know is that when someone is going through a hard time, they really don’t want to you to be like, “oh I am so sorry. I totally know what you are going through,” because the truth is, you have never gone through that same thing before, and you actually have NO clue what it feels like to be in their place.
*Emily,
I agree with what you said about how people want to trust God so much in a situation where things are tough. I haven’t necessarily blamed God for a lot thing that go wrong in my life, but I know that many people that go to my school and such have said things like that, and act like God is just ruining there life. I liked that you brought that up, because I think it is very true in most peoples lives.
One thing that I noticed was how the guy in the first story talked about the color grey. Jess and I had been talking about kind of the same thing earlier. Also, I never thought about whether or not Jesus would care about something like driving.
One community I feel really connected to is my extended family on my mom’s side. We don’t all live really close but I feel like we know a lot of what goes on in each other’s lives, and we care. I think it would be better if we could see each other more often and get to know each other like friends instead of family.
From just people in general I have learned that being hypocrytical ruins your reputation as well as making life really hard, but when you are the same with everyone, you never have to worry about messing it up.
Katie,
I agree that you can be connected to people that don’t live close. A community could just be the people that care. Having people like that in your life is really important
Something that stuck out to me was the story of the guy who’s house caught on fire. I don’t think I could ever trust somebody enough to drop my baby out of the window to a complete stranger. In downtown canton we could use the skill of trusting each other even in situations you don’t want to. A community I feel connected to and loved by would be my family because everybody is nice and supporting no matter what actions you have been through. They will stay with you through it until it gets better. Something that I have learned from the way that I live is if you do chores/work when your parents ask you to or before they ask you to. Today (saturday) I had to spend my whole morning working with my dad doing yard work and getting things organized for my sisters grad party. When we were done he took me out to eat and gave me the rest of the day off. I had a really good feeling doing that with my dad and it made me happy.
That’s really good what you did to help out with the party and it’s good that you got rewarded and felt good about helping out. Because sometimes it’s really boring to do work but when you think about the person’s reactions it makes you work harder. (at least I think)
I agree that it would take a lot of trust to drop a child and trust that a stranger would catch him/her. However, I have to think about the alternative. I think that most parents would drop the child because there may not be another way for the child to survive. That would take a lot of trust, but I think in the middle of the situation, we all would have to think about what is best for our child, and that may be trusting that a stranger would catch the child.
Sometimes the parent may not be thinking smart of=r fast enough and not let the child go.
One thing that stuck out to me was Lesson Learned. It really showed that if you are opened to it, you can learn something from everyone. Ann could have easily brushed off or ignored all those people who come to her for help, but she chose to not only help them but learn from thier story.
I think we can take a lot out the story Lesson Learned and apply it to Canton. While we are in Canton I think we should learn something from every person we meet. And not only them, we should also learn from each other too.
A community I feel connected to is my vollyball team. I feel connected to them because for the 2 hours we have practice, everything we do effects someone else. One person cannot win a game of volleyball, so we all have to work together to win. And we do bad, we are all punished together. So its very encouraging to be with my team because everyone wants each other to do the best we can. One thing that could make this “community” better is to not talk bad about someone. It would just make everyone happier to know that, even when they had a bad practice or game, no one is talking about it behind their back.
I have learned to live differently because of my cousin. She is always so positive and takes everything one moment at time. I feel like whenever I have a bad day, I don’t try to make it better. I just accept its going to be a bad day and am unhappy that day. But if something bad happens, I should just forget about it and move on, because being unhappy for the rest of the day isnt going to change what happened.
Abbi,
I really like what you said about your volleyball team. I know what it is like to be paranoid that someone is talking behind my back and I think improving or holding eachother accountable for not talking behind backs would make your relationships stronger.
Something that stuck out to me this week, would have to be the story “Would Jesus Drive.” It caught my attention when Jeff said he was amazed when he realized that the bus was a community. The people on the bus didn’t care that they had to give up their seats, or had to wait an extra 5 minutes, for the person in the wheelchair. The community on the bus allowed the space and time for people to get to any place they needed or wanted to go, with fairness and equality. On a highway each person only cares for themselves, and doesn’t give respect to one another. They cheat their way around to get to the place they want to be, without going through the hassle of another person in need of help. I also like the verses on the next page of Ephesians 2:14-22 where it says, “Now He’s using you, fitting you in brick by brick, stone by stone, with Christ Jesus as the cornerstone that holds all the parts together. We see it taking the shape day after day – a holy temple built by God, all of us built into it, a temple at which God is quite at home.” I like this part, because it’s saying that God is giving us the space, brick/stone, in His kingdom when we go to Heaven. In Canton, we should be trusting in our neighbors around us, like in the story “Gray”; We should be a community together, and with other people around us, like in the story “Would Jesus Drive”; and we should pay attention to the way other people live, like in “Lesson Learned”, because we might just learn a few lessons.
A community I feel really connected to, and loved by is my JO Volleyball team. They made me feel loved because at first, I was the only one on either team that didn’t know anyone going into the season. They all befriended me, and we still stay in contact now that the season is over. During our season though, we would always be there for each other no matter what and wouldn’t think about quitting after 3 girls already quit. After they quit we all would put in more effort to make the team work with only 6 players. In our last tournament we worked so well together, and cheered each other on through the whole thing. And even though we had never won a game during the whole season, we ended up winning gold because of the good thoughts we had in our head and the hard work we put into every week. This community is good, because during the nearly 4 months we played with each other, we learned to get along, and love each other. My team is also very open and I could talk to anyone on my team about anything because we were so close. One thing that could make this community better, would be playing again together in the years to come. It would make us grow stronger together.
I have learned many things from the fellow eighth grader, Emily Devereaux. Emily lives a life of no regrets, while I live mostly with the fear of something going wrong. Emily has taught me not to live a life of fear and that has really helped me. She told me I can live only one day at a time, and I should be calm for most of it. I have learned that I can’t be fully trusting in God if I am living in fear. Emily has really been a good listener to me, and has helped me with this. Emily is teaching me how to live without fear…
I have to agree with what you say about fear. Sometimes we all worry and fear to much but when we let go of that we feel and do better. But I agree living fearfree is not easy
Yeah. In the Bible it tells us not to worry about tomorrow but sometimes that is so hard to do. It feels like if something gets messed up nothing will ever go right again, but we just have to trust that God will work it out somehow.
The story that really stuck out to me was when the one guys house caught on fire. I would never trust a complete stranger to catch my child. As a group we could use this trust to help people. A community I feel connected to is my soccer team. Everyone knows each other. Our soccer team has really bonded into one big family. Also our team just has fun doing what we love. I have learned to live differently thank to my friend Alex Herrera. He is a good worker and also a good friend. He help others who need help,(like homework,studying).
I agree that we need to have trust to help others. It’s sometimes hard because we might not know the person that well, but sometimes you just have to have that trust.
It does take a lot of trust for some simple things in life and some big things.
Something that really stuck out to me was the story “Gray.” I was completely into the story, rooting for everything to be okay. It took a whole bunch of trust for Leroy to drop his baby to that man. I think this story had such an impact on me because I often have trouble trusting. Sometimes I wish I could open up to anyone who asks but I find it so hard to pick out who genuinely cares or who is just trying to make conversation. As a team, we should consider that the people around us genuinely care and we should trust them.
A community that I feel connected to and loved by is Flipd. When i was a newcomer, everyone made me feel part of the family. That’s why it means so much to me, my youth group is like my unbiological family. They are always around to encourage and make me laugh. I think this community is so good because we are all so different but we share a common love and thirst for God. That brings us together. I think acceptance and a wider tolerance of everyone would improve this community.I know personally that I tend to hang with the same group. Reaching out to anyone would improve this community.
I have recently learned something from my close friend, Kindsey. She has such a heart for God and she inspires me to seek him in the darkest times. Because of her, I have learned to seriously be still and just listen to and for Him.
I love when you said that all the people at flipd share the common love and thirst for God. That is sooo true.
Two sections really caught my attention this week. The section entitled “Gray” really made me take a look at something with which I thought I had a lot of familiarity (the color gray) in a different way. The perspective offered was one that I have never considered. Gray to me is so “blah”; it is representative of something lacking creativity. I like that gray could represent two sides coming together– two very different perspectives being put aside for one common good. The story of the fire and the resulting charity that was displayed by the two churches moved me to see that I must have a different perspective on what community can look like. The other section that challenged me was the “Would Jesus Drive?” section. I have thought about this a lot over the years when it comes to how my family gets around from place to place. We live out in the country, and public transportation is not even an option for us most of the time. Because of the things that I enjoy doing with projects and work, I drive a big, gas-guzzling four wheel drive truck. However, my wife and I decided that we wanted to save some money on gas, so the car we purchased for my wife is a hybrid. I have to admit that we like saving money on gas, but we aren’t exactly “green” people. However, I’m not sure that Jeff’s point was really about saving gas or being “green,” and, to be honest, I’m not sure that Jesus would care what we each drive so long as we were being good stewards of our resources. I think of all the people I have been able to help because I own a truck, and I don’t feel the least bit guilty about the amount of gas it uses. BUT… I think the bigger point might be how we often miss out on so many opportunities to connect with others because we are bustling from one place to another in our own, individual vehicles, separated from so many other people. When in big cities, my wife and I use public transportation a lot (mostly out of necessity), and I definitely can see where a sense of community could come from being onboard the bus or using rail transit each day.
A community in which my wife and I have been a part for several years is a small group Bible study that meets once a week. We have been doing this for about five years or so and have developed great bonds with the people involved. The only thing that I would change is that because the couples involved in the group are in their 20s and 30s some have had to move away and take new jobs. That has been tough to see them leave. My wife, daughter, and I feel so loved in that community.
“Gray” was one of the stories that stuck out to me in this section of the book. More specifically, when the man has to make the decision to drop Joel down to the contractor or not. I think this really shows what a neighbor is. Also, it helped me look at gray a different way.
A community I feel loved by would probably be my select choir group. Some of us have been in the group for 2 years and I feel like we will always have each others backs and since we all have singing in common, we get along well and can relate to one another.
Lastly, I’ve learned from my mom that I shouldn’t get worried over little things that aren’t important and to always look at the bright side when I am in a bad situation. I feel like I need to think more positively and not to worry as much.
The lesson that you learned from your mom is a great life lesson. I try to keep the right perspective about things, but it is not always easy. No matter what stage of life we are in, there will always be things that seem like a big deal when we are in the middle of them, but when we look back later, we may wish we had not devoted so much energy to worrying about something that turned out to be so small.
*Rachel,
I have to say I worry about the small things in life that really don’t matter too. It’s really nice to be able to pray about those things as well, and make it easier not to worry about them. After all, God is always there for us (:
Something that stuck out to me in the reading this week was the trust the man had with the construction worker, when they had no contact with each other before the man was put in this situation, which depended on the life of his son. I loved how confident the construction worker was. Even though he was probably really scared about catching the baby, he didn’t show it because he could see how worried the man was already. I think that when we second-guess our actions, it lowers our confidence and the result of what happens, but the construction worker just did what he felt was right. The worker also showed more confidence with how he just stepped in and helped, I know some people might just stand and watch because, they’re scared too.
I’ve always felt loved by the band. There’s so many different kinds of people there but all of us somehow connect together. I’ve never felt judged by any of them, there’s always someone that cares and is there for you. We’ve seen each other in our good times and our bad times. It’s honestly, like a big family. Something that would make it better is if we didn’t sometimes divide into smaller groups of people and if we spread out more and tried to involve everyone so it doesn’t feel like a clique.
My friend has always been picked on and made fun of for most of his life just because he’s really quiet and people think he’s weak. He’s never confronted anyone about it and just dealt with the criticism throughout his life. He still doesn’t say anything to the little, hurtful comments people make about him. I think how he’s just taken in all these hurtful things people say about him without hurting anyone back shows how strong he really is. He doesn’t even get mad at these people, he forgives and forgets, even when they haven’t asked for forgiveness. I’ve never met anyone who really displayed “loving your enemies” before. And he’s not an unhappy person, even though his feelings can get hurt all the time. It makes me realize how much time we can spend by thinking bad things about ourselves because of what people think of us and we can just be sad. Or, we can let it go and be happy…because it doesn’t matter what people think of us.
Emily…two things. 1. I enjoy what you say about band and how it is accepting of everyone and you feel accepted there and never feel judged. That is great. Everyone needs a place like that. I’m so glad (and this is to everyone really…) that you all have said you have a place where you feel love and accepted where you can go and spend time with people you know care about you and just have a good time! And 2. Thank you for sharing about your friend. That is such an inspiring story. Just from you sharing I have learned a little something.
As a teacher, I can confirm what you say about the band being a big family. Generally speaking, band kids are awesome about accepting other people. The band offers a great way for middle and high school students to pursue a passion and to find the comraderie of peers who enjoy something similar. I think that the band also illustrates another cool aspect of Christianity. The band is made up of so many different people with different talents and playing different instruments, but when they all come together, a beautiful piece of music can be produced. I’m glad that you have the band as a place where you are accepted and feel comfortable.
I agree when you said your friend shows really how strong he is by ignoring the hurtful comments people make. Its important to not let little comments like that get in the way of us being happy. He also realizes its more important to please God instead of worrying what others think of him.
Something that stuck out to me this week was the story “Gray”. I think it would be hard to trust some random stranger with your child’s life. I hope that if I was in a situation like that, that I could be as trusting as the guy in the story.
A community that I feel really connected to is my soccer team (yes I know, Jacob said that already, but I thought of that as soon as I read the question). It’s really cool when you have a group of people that over time become your friends and work as a team. I love my soccer team and I’m glad to be a part of it. As of what could make it better, I’m not sure that there’s much. We work as a team and are just happy to play together and be friends.
that same story how some one person asked the guy to drop his baby and then he did and Joel was saved and he can live in jesus.Lesson Learned was another passage that stuck out to me it stuck out to me because that if u try hard enough u willlearn from most people.and i would never just drop my baby off at down town canton.
A community that I feel really connected to is my football team i think it is cool llike when you are in conditiong you really get to no the people u work with and after the season is over BAM u no the whole team like the back of ur hand.Im not sure if u can make it better at all
someting i learned from life is give it 100% or just dont do it at all
The story “Grey” was really good. I could never imange about louising my house to a fire. All of your memories and important things and your clothing would be gone. Than to bw traped on the second floor would make every thing twice as hard. Luckly thw lady had a construction team on the other side of the syreet to help her get her child down saftly. Than for her to jump amd hit the railing must of hurt. The hospital stay would have been hard because all you do is lay there giving your self time to think about the fire making it hard on you. When bad things happen its better to keep your self busy.
P.S. Did this on my phone so the spelling isnt the greatest.
yeah how we a lmost always look at gray with disgust but it really is a great thing to think about
The story that caught my attention the most was the first story, Grey. My favorite part of the story was the end where it talks about the two vastly different churches that both came together and gave money to help them get their lives back on track. I really liked this because it really shows what God wants for us. He doesn’t want us to get caught up in the idiosyncrasies of this world like whether we’re Republican or Democratic, black or white, or what denomination we are. He just wants us to come together, as His children, and do amazing things, together. Now as to somewhere I feel really accepted, would have to be, for lack of a better term, the arts. As in literature, music, ect. I can’t even count the number of times that someone I’ve never even met before has stopped and talked to me because of a band shirt I’m wearing, or a book I’m holding. It’s really cool to just be out and have someone see you and start talking to you about a band because your wearing a shirt. Or to start a connect with the clerk at borders because you asked them where a book is. Its amazing how many people you can instantly make a connection with with just one seemingly small thing.