Connection & Community
We are wired for connection. We are not meant to live in isolation.
The human heart is not meant to go alone.
Have you ever had a parent, a coworker, a sibling, a teacher, or a coach advocate for you?
Have you ever felt stronger when you could be vulnerable and express your emotions in front of a group of people?
Have you ever felt inspired to make a change in your life based on the people around you, either through their example or with their support?
I have! And I know that we are meant to be in community with others.
We are meant to live together and to work together. We are better, stronger, and more influential when we are in community.
Even those living alone or with small communities are still encountering others along the way and along their journey through life. The depth of relationships, while important, is not the only thing when it comes to human connection.
Taking a step back, in the Forgiveness blog post from August, I wrote:
“We find healing in community. We heal in sharing and speaking our truth. We heal by telling our story. We do not heal in isolation.”
I want to expand on that to emphasize how important connection to others and having a community are in our lives. Not just for healing, but holistically in life.
Our relationships can determine how we live and how long we live. Our relationships create our community. Our community and culture can impact our eating habits and our level, or even type, of exercise.
Science supports eating together in community for many reasons. For example, there have been studies done and articles written by The American Medical Association indicating that children in America that ate at least 3 meals a week with their parents developed a decreased risk of obesity and disordered eating.
Eating in community, gathering for a meal, and/or going for a walk after your meal are all ways to impact your lifestyle (how you live) and your length of life (how long you live). Yes, there are certainly physical benefits to these, but also mental, emotional, spiritual, and psychological benefits to building up these relationships. It may be parent-child, sibling-sibling, partner-partner, etc.
Pivoting to some of those other benefits, I want to reflect on guidance from Scripture that can support us as we think about our connection to others…
John 13:34 commands us to “love one another” as Jesus has loved us. How do we do this?
Jesus loves us exactly as we are. To love one another is to accept others as they are. It is also:
to hold each other accountable
to cheer each other on
to keep each other honest
to inspire each other to be your best
to call each other higher
to draw each other closer to God
If your relationships do not include Christ, I invite you to evaluate and ask yourself: does this person and my relationship with them draw me closer to Jesus or further away from Him? Does this person make me more like Jesus? Do I draw them closer to Jesus? Do I inspire that person to be more like Jesus?
Deeper and more meaningful connections and relationships are built through love and sacrifice.
As we draw closer to one another, we create more intimacy.
Higher forms of intimacy require higher forms of surrender.
This type of surrender requires vulnerability in order to get to that higher form of intimacy. These intimate connections can be with any person in our life - a spouse, a partner, a sibling, a coworker, any one.
Paul advises us in Galatians 6:2 to bear one another’s burdens, and in this way we will fulfill the law of Christ.
What does it mean to bear someone else’s burden?
This is an act of selfless love in which we are choosing to carry some of the weight of whatever they are carrying.
This broadens our perspective. This brings us outside of ourselves. This encourages us to focus on others for the moment rather than ourselves entirely.
We need each other. In spirituality, we can reflect and ask ourselves:
How am I strengthening the connections I have in my life? In my family? In my neighborhood? In my community?
How am I building those bonds stronger, working together?
We accomplish more by working together.
God has made us and designed us to be in community with one another.
Keep an eye out for those that God puts into our lives. Humbly accept their help.
God strengthens us when we embrace community. When we work together, we are so much stronger. Through working together, we serve the Lord.
There are blessings in community that we cannot encounter any other way.
That’s all for now. Thank you for reading this far and for coming back to the blog.
If it’s your first time, welcome! Happy to have you here.
Until next time…stay curious!
xo,
Megan C
