The Discipline of Community

Prospective Cover

I haven’t been blogging lately – instead, I’ve been furiously proof-reading the publisher's galleys of my book – which I hope will be in your hands by the end of May. Keep your eyes on this site for the details as soon as they’re available.

But today I want to resume the series I started back in March – Ten Disciplines for Living Downstream from Eden – principles for living creatively in our less-than-perfect world. These disciplines are ways to respond not just to the gift of water – but to all the lavish natural resources of the created world.

The discipline of reverence, worship and awe and the discipline of gratitude orient us to God as our Creator and Provider. The discipline of responsive stewardship orients us to both God and the earth – to our physical and spiritual environments. The discipline of generosity opens our hearts and hands and minds in response to all we’ve been given.

Today’s theme takes Generosity a step further, leading us to a discipline of community. Water has a way of bringing people together in community, whether it is around a village well or a local flood, a shared river or waterfront or a family baptism. Sharing water can bring out the best or the worst in us, our instincts to neighborliness or our mean-spirited underside. Water links us around mutual concerns; It may lead us to cooperation and self-restraint or it may expose our self-centeredness or indifference or the hostility or inequities between us. We’re all in it together when it comes to water.

There is an urban theme throughout the Bible – and water figures prominently in it. The Book of Revelation culminates in an urban setting, where a river brings the water of life to the whole community. The community of God’s people on earth is pictured in both Old and New Testaments as a city in order to exhibit the neighborliness of love, and the creativity and sacrifice it requires. A community that works together for common goals, that sacrifices to enrich others to serve the larger community models the heart of God for the world. It offers an alternative to the pride, selfishness, insecurity and greed that characterizes so much of urban life in our world.

As urbanization increases in 21st century, millions of the world’s poor gather in vast slums and barrios with no adequate water supply or sanitation. This seems to me as far downstream from Eden as we can get; further even than the scorched desert. In such a place of urban thirst and disease, Jesus cries out today “if anyone is thirsty . . .” Those of us who believe this promise of his, need to work hard to give it flow in such places.