Seven-Day Practical Faith Blog: Community is Where Humility and Glory Touch

We had a saying within the multi-national company in which I used to work: "It's hard to be a jerk to someone you've had dinner with."

It was true. When encountering through email a difficult colleague that you had never met, it was pretty easy to criticize them harshly or address them with less respect. But once you had met that person face to face, you treated them differently. And especially if you had taken time to sit down to dinner with them.

This post's picture shows a picnic table that sits at a point in Europe where the borders of Slovakia, Austria, and Hungary meet. Citizens of these countries can share lunch together without crossing any borders.

One of the major problems in our society is the lack of community. Maybe the solution emerges from actually getting to know individual people, face to face, eating dinner with them, conversing with them, actively listening to them.

Henri Nouwen wrote, "Community is where humility and glory touch." Who brings the humility? That should be me - us. Who brings the glory? God - that is, when we let God sit at the table as well.

I've been thinking a lot lately about the sin of pride exhibited regularly in our country. My thoughts aren't fully developed, but I'm starting to think pride is our biggest issue. We don't want to admit wrong. We double down. We don't apologize. We think we're right, and others are so misguided, they're not worth listening to. In our minds, we bundle others into convenient, faceless groups. We are so proud of ourselves! I'm guilty of the sin of pride.

But think about when we actually meet people different from us and begin to build a relationship. For example, some folks thought it was a good idea to send others away from our country, but when the government came for a neighbor, they defended the neighbor's right to be here. That's because they knew the neighbor, cared for the neighbor, perhaps ate dinner with the neighbor. The neighbor was not in some faceless category. They were a friend.

Where I live, we hear a lot of bad things about Muslims. But the Muslims I encounter as volunteers at a homeless shelter have the biggest hearts for the needy, as large as or larger than mine. We may not agree on theology, but we can work shoulder to shoulder on the relief efforts we believe in.

Somehow we must rid ourselves of pride and adopt humility. When we are humble, when we can actually see a child of God for who they are, it's hard to be a jerk. It's possible to allow God's glory to be seen and for community to develop.

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