A Present Community

I felt at rest. Time seemed to move slowly and my schedule had nothing on it. Have you ever had one of these seasons in life? Some of you are thinking, “Yeah, 15 years ago when I was in college.” Or, “I can remember the days before we had kids…” Perhaps it happened on your last vacation. Well, regardless of the circumstances, most of us have had moments of deep rest at some point in our lives. We’ve known what it was like, as it were, to be at peace in the world.

I recently returned from a study leave afforded to me by Riverside. The lake house I found myself in had a massive fireplace, the cupboard was fully-stocked, and the company I had all played a role in giving me a restful place to simply be. It provided me “space” to study, to read the Bible, to pray, and enjoy moments of reflection too. It was ironic because I was reading a book by Henri Nouwen called “Reaching Out”. One of the major themes of his book is a recovery of Christian hospitality. Hospitality, says Nouwen, is "the creation of free space where the stranger can enter and become a friend instead of an enemy." In that lake house, hospitality was shown forth and I was further invited into being human.

Hospitality does not simply refer to giving someone, who happens to be passing through town, cookies and milk and wishing them happily along their way. Rather than treating people like Santa Claus, hospitality is much more than providing a meal and a place to stay. I need to interject: room and board are certainly hospitable acts of love, but there is much more to hospitality than just food and sheets. Nouwen suggests that hospitality is a “disposition of the heart” to allow people that God brings in our midst a safe place to be. To be hospitable is to allow room for God’s work in the lives of our neighbors, without our forcing or controlling. It is to create space while remaining present.

As we seek to be a community at Riverside, it is our aim to create space while remaining present. It means that we won’t run away. It means we won’t control. And it means that loving-well will be characterized by patience and care. Why would we pursue community this way? Because we are aiming to promote restfulness and comfort, ultimately, in Jesus. What does this mean—restfulness in Jesus? While I’m no statistician, my experience in caring for the human heart leads me to the conclusion that about 100% of our disquietude of soul (whether one is a follower of Jesus or not) comes from our inability to rest—to find our deepest satisfaction—in Him. So true rest is of this kind: where the soul is at rest in Jesus alone.

To have this sort of community will mean that we must remain present with others. It will assume that we are doing the hard work of taking our own fears to God, so when people respond in ways that are uncomfortable for us, we’ll know that we are safe too. In other words, our best community will only be experienced to the degree that we are able to give space while remaining present (hospitality). But the giver and protector of this space will only be able to do so to the degree that they themselves have found Jesus providing this selfsame space for them...

I’d love to hear your thoughts, if you care to share them…Ryan