In Up In the Air, a recent movie about a man who fires people for a living, he convinces a man who is about to walk away from a wedding to stay. He eventually does this by asking the man to think about all of the best moments in his life. He asks him if he was alone in any of those moments and the man says no. The point being that everyone needs a copilot, as George Clooney quips, or that life is better shared. At the end of the movie Into The Wild, Chris McCandless, as he is dying scribes "Happiness only real when shared." As people we love community and companionship because they instill in us a sense of value. So why do we run away from it? In a documentary about some Lost boys of Sudan living in the United States they talked about how above all they missed living in community with their tribe because the isolation here felt off. They talked about how you aren't supposed to just walk up to strangers and talk to them, or walk up to someone's house and ask for directions. Jack Shepherd in season one of Lost tells the survivors "Either we learn to live together, or we're going to die alone."
And all of these stories had me thinking about my own life, my best moments. Surely enough they were all shared memories. Parts of my story that intersected with others, webs of moments filled with laughter, tears and growth. And I started to think about this idea of community and how we're taught to have community at a distance, share with each other when it's easy. As children (if good) we share everything with each other. We invite each other over no matter the circumstances and never leave details out of stories. We grow older and we're taught to isolate ourselves slowly, eventually ending in a house on a plot of land with a yard separating us from our neighbors. In fact, our society tells us basically the more money you have, the more isolated you can be, as if that is where happiness is achieved. Often in poverty you see conglomerations of people living together.
I tried to make sense of the money buying isolation in reference to God's relationship to humanity and failed. Then failed some more. I kept thinking about all of the people in our world being knit together by God as equals. I thought about God wanting to be in a relationship with us as we continually run away, isolating ourselves from Him. I thought about God giving us grace anyway, I thought about God telling us to love our neighbor while we move further and further away. I thought about all of these huge homes with empty space and people on the street with no space to themselves. I thought about all of these things and felt off, but more than that felt like if I felt off, that I need to do something about it.
So I started brainstorming and reading and talking to loved ones and came up with this. A community of believers choosing to live lives based on need taking from a communal fund that everyone donates 100% of their income too. The thought being that we believe we are doing what we truly think God is calling us to, for me working in college administration, and with those positions come a monetary value placed by society. In other words, this is not "our" money. It is to be used for the kingdom. As we are commanded to take care of our own we will, but excess of that we can use for good. Maybe that looks like setting up a shelter in our apartment complex for the homeless to get on their feet, or it means supporting members of our community as they go into the mission field. What I know is that I am happiest when I am with others and I serve God best when I am in a community of people dedicated to Jesus.
The second variable is that we would live in the same geographical area, preferably in the same apartment complex as to share more and individualize less. This way, not every apartment needs a TV or video game unit or washer and dryer. Rather, we learn to live in community, which not only means we use less money but provides us a larger group to draw strength from, to share laughs with, to glorify God with. Further, it provides a natural accountability we don't often have economically. I can't count the amount of times I've spent $20 on something I knew I wouldn't use or something that didn't have any real value mainly because I never really felt the money leave my account, just a number. But if I was living in a community taking an oath to live on need, where not only were people I loved drawing from the resources, but our community was too, I think I would think about my spending a little more.
So if we are supposed to love one another, why don't we invite them in? If we are supposed to use money for God, why can't we join a community dedicated to doing so?
We can.
But there will be conflict, there will be struggle, and that's where this conference can help.
I need to find people dedicated to this cause and I need to find a location to start it. I need to find a church that is willing to support this idea. I need to prepare for the conflict of people not wanting to join, people wanting to leave and corruption seeping in. I need to prepare for people believing that this is a cult or too extreme. I need to learn how my character can embrace these conflicts and come out dedicated to the cause on the other end. Further, the conference can help because that many more people will hear about the idea and think about their lives and how they fit in to scripture and society.
I want characters to live out their passions in a manner that depicts God as their center and glorifying him through their life as their purpose. I believe this community can do it. Maybe you will as well.
Also, I need a name for the community.
This is a entry for a contest to go to Donald Miller's conference on living a better story.
This is a link to the website- http//www.donmilleris.com/conference
This is a video better explaining the contest-
Living a Better Story Seminar from All Things Converge Podcast on Vimeo.
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