Community

We lived in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, for three years.  My husband had an assignment as an ROTC professor at Louisiana State University.  While there, I attended LSU and completed my bachelor’s degree in English literature.  While there, I also fell in love with certain aspects of Louisiana culture, one of my favorites being Community Coffee.  Let me give you some facts about Community Coffee:

“Community Coffee is a coffee roaster and distributor based in Baton Rouge.  As of 2005, it was the largest family-owned coffee brand in the United States.  Community Coffee originated in 1919 when company founder Norman “Cap” Saurage began experimenting with coffee blends at his two grocery stores in downtown Baton Rouge. Demand for the coffee increased to the extent that by 1923 Saurage moved his coffee production to a converted barn and in 1924 left his grocery business to focus on coffee.”  (from Wikipedia)

I’ve thanked the Lord that Cap Saurage made that kind of major life change.  Community Coffee has a smooth taste and a strong presence.  For a long time after we moved away from Louisiana, I had it delivered to wherever we lived.  Now I can order it online—and I do.  In fact, we’re awaiting a shipment right now.

Not only do I love the taste and the aroma of Community Coffee, I love its name and what that name represents:  Community.  I treasure the concept of community and the reality of community.  When I realize that I’m experiencing community, I rejoice at that moment and hunger for more of it.

Three blessings of community come to my mind:

1. A sense of belonging, of family.  Community gives us a place that is ours, where we belong, where we know and are known.  We can settle in with a relieved sigh and relax.  We can enjoy being with people who know us and love us—and people we can know and love.  The best experiences of community point us toward the best possibilities about what it means to be part of the family of God.  My husband and I experienced that when he had a serious fall; our church family rallied around us and took amazing care of us throughout his recovery.
2. Accountability.  Community brings us into relationships that challenge us to be better and to do better.  When we live in community, we can challenge others and be challenged ourselves to live more and more faithfully as disciples of Jesus.  An accountability partner listened carefully to me and my concerns and then pointed me toward a life-changing course of action.
3. Service.  Community provides opportunities to serve others and demonstrate love for them in tangible ways.  Within the community we see all kinds of possibilities to bless one another.  Even more, we in the community can team up to love others outside the community and to show them the love that comes from relationship with Jesus.

These very few reasons to rejoice in community give me a desire for more of it.  Psalm 133:1 reminds us of this, “How good and pleasant it is when God’s people live together in unity!”  Good and pleasant indeed!  Life-giving, in fact.

By the way, if you’d like to try out Community Coffee, you can order it at www.communitycoffee.com or through Amazon.  Or you can come on over; I’ll put on a pot of Community Coffee, and we’ll share mug of this wonderful Baton Rouge brew, enjoying community with one another.

Questions:  What do you think of when you think of the word “community”?  What one thing can you do this week to further community around you?