The Gift of Community

I've been reading "The Irresistible Revolution" by Shane Claiborne, and this book is in large part to blame for my thinkings on poverty and reality and in my hopes to live in Middle Reality. Here's some more thoughts. This guy lives in a community house in the inner city of Philly:
"I almost feel selfish sometimes, for the gift of community. The beautiful thing is that there is enough to go around"
"But that doesn't mean community is easy. For everything in this world tries to pull us away from community, pushes us to choose ourselves over others, to choose independence over interdependence, to choose great things over small things, to choose going fast alone over going far together."
"The concept of multidimensional discipleship is essential as we consider how to retain a radical discipleship that is multiethnic, intergenerational, and includes singles and families. Otherwise we will just end up surrounded by people who look like us, think like us, and respond to the gospel in exactly the same way we do. And that would rob us of the gift of community and of what it means to be a body with many different parts."
It's probably easy to see how this ties into my previous posts- when we distance ourselves from suffering, we miss out on so much. When we come closer, begin to follow in Jesus's footsteps of associating with the poor and needy, the desperate and sinful, we begin to be able to understand and live and hopefully give hope and love. When we begin to understand what this "the last shall be first, the first shall be last" thing is all about, that's when we are becoming conformed to the image of Christ, that is when we are really in reality and making a difference in it- through community, giving, and love.