Day 29: Community and Simplicity

I come home from a long weekend 5 hours away. I listen to an audio book. I pull in the driveway and see I am home alone, so I sit and listen some more. I unpack the car, put my clothes in the washing machine, and move the book into the blu-ray player to finish. I sit chillaxing, not totally sure when they will get home. The phone rings, and it is him – my love’s voice is on the other end, and he tells me they will be home in a few minutes. I sit and listen and wait some more.

The sound of the garage door opening excites me as they are home. My love, my boy, and my girls. My community.

I have just come home from Allume where I listened to the lovely Ann – and seeing her in person adds an element that changes how I read her writing as connecting the real life to the online always does. She is the opening night keynote, and she tells all us bloggers that we are stars. Before she begins, Logan and Sarah Mae tell us that there are no Christian celebrities, and I’ve just conversed with other bloggers about that very phrase saying, “Christian celebrities?” It is an uncomfortable and unfamiliar phrase and I say, “Isn’t that weird to say christian and celebrity in the same breath.” Yet moments before Ann’s talk, we’ve all stood starry-eyed around tables watching others approach Ann while drinking lemonade, mingling, and making awkward small talk with strangers.

I’ve observed that I might be the quietest one there – yet I’ve seen the newbie mingle from beginning to end and now I need to get to the ballroom quickly to find a front row spot to see Ann again. She says we are stars, but that scientists say that no one marvels at the stars if they see a cluster of any amount smaller than 450. See only one star – no big deal. See 200? Still no big deal. See 450 stars, and you’ve hit the threshold of marvelousness. There are 453 of us in the room, and we are a community. A community of bloggers and writers and Christians who hope to share His truth in some form or fashion.

Simplicity seeks the Kingdom of God first. I like how we are to seek the Kingdom – that’s slightly different than seeking God first. It implies a multitude – a community – a body of people who are grouped together because they love the King. At the core of simplicity is community. On my own, I don’t change people for God. On my own, I don’t do much of anything.

Today alone, my hubby has awakened me, then the kids. He made Annabelle’s lunch and put the snacks in their bags. My mom comes over to watch Lisabeth so I can go to the field trip with buddy (Elijah). I drive the kids to school. The moms load coolers of food into the car for a field trip (we are a third community). My mother in law picks up Lisabeth from school because I won’t be home yet, and without my mom, my hubby, and my mother in law, I’d not be able to love Elijah more or serve his school community. I take Annabelle to girl scouts and hubby bathes my son and gets my other girl to bed while we are gone. I put Annabelle to bed when I get home and when we hear a thump, my hubby checks it out and calls me up – one is sick in the bed, and he and I work to set the community as right as it can be when one is sick.

One really is a lonely number, but a cord of three strands is not easily broken. Me + the Trinity is always four, and I am never alone. Always in a community are we. Simplicity: Kingdom first, listening to the one voice of the King. Members making a body forming community and inviting others in.

This post is one in a series of posts on 31 days of Simplicity. To read other posts in the series, click the icon below.

Photo Credit: Sharon Mollerus

Linking with these ladies: Cornerstone Confessions, Darlene, and Jacinda.