“Even the Lone Ranger had Tonto.” I do not know who said that first, but for some reason it always stuck with me. Sometimes I feel like I need to do things on my own instead of asking for help and resources around me. Like the time I tried to garden by myself, without ever doing it before, and I was living in a town of farmers who had immaculate gardens. They found some humor in my attempt, while coming over to correct my naïve mistakes a few weeks later. Then there was the time I attempted to build a swing set in our backyard by myself, not knowing that one of the pieces of wood weighed about 75 pounds, and I needed to lift it above my head. I did it, but my back felt that action for several weeks.
I’m wired, without even knowing it, with Oklahoma’s version of rugged individualism, and it takes a lot for me to ask for help. (I’ve improved over the years thanks to the patient, and sometimes impatient, nudging of my wife, Sarah). Yet when I look to the Scriptures, community and bearing one another’s burdens is an important theme.
We get the word community from a Greek word, koinonia. Koinonia is usually translated “partnership” or “fellowship” in the Scriptures. When it is translated “fellowship,” it is meant more like the Fellowship of the Ring (Tolkien), rather than the ice cream fellowship after Sunday evening church. (I think I would favor the ice cream fellowship.) The fellowship meant in the Scriptures is a group of people devoted to a purpose together. Christian fellowship, then, is a group of Christians who are devoted to Jesus, with their lives. Yes, they break bread together. They worship together. They pray for one another. They carry each other’s burdens.
God is community. The Trinity which proclaims God as one, yet three distinct persons, is a mystery even to the most brilliant of theologians. The best definition of the Trinity is “a community of love.” Then, in our church communities, we reflect the Trinity when we love one another in community.
So here is my encouragement for you – find a group, a Sunday School class, a Bible or book study group. Learn to listen in prayer to one another and bear one another’s burdens together. Join a group, care for the group, and let them care for you. In doing so, you will discover, over time, a little more what God is like