Connecting with complete strangers when you are at a special event seems so easy when there is a common bond that brings you together. I talk about that in my recent episode of Reviving Your Soul (Now Longing for More) called Living in Community with Others where I share a recent experience at the annual Back to the 50’a car show. I really love the cars there, but I also really enjoy the true sense of community we experience every year we go.
Community is such an important aspect of our lives. Like the poem says, people come and go in our lives. Some stay for a reason, some for a season and some for a lifetime. We either love and enjoy them or tolerate them as appropriate during the time they are there. But what if, instead of just tolerating those we don’t connect with instantly, we searched for and found that thing that connects us to them so we can enjoy the time we spend with them. Even if they have different beliefs or likes or styles than we do?
What if we took the time to discover that they love old cars too? Or they love your favorite beer or your favorite restaurant? What if they love the same kind of music you do? It could change everything, couldn’t it? So why don’t we do that? Why don’t we keep asking the right questions to find that one thing? Is it because we have prejudged based on the way they look, their accent, the car they drive, or the clothes they are wearing? Like it or not, many times it is exactly those surface things we don’t get passed.
It makes me sad to think about the story I share about the friend who introduced me to my husband would have never done that had I followed my initial instinct not to become friends with her. For me, it was a true lesson to open up to people that God brings into our lives. We just never know how the story will end.
I have found this to be true in my coaching circles. I love how this group of people who came together to learn a trade is building a community. We all have different backgrounds, areas of expertise, and philosophies about life, but we all know that we can encourage and support one another and that we have more similarities than differences. We also know that we can all be authentically ourselves and don’t have to hide our insecurities, doubts, or fears. When you think about it, that is how all communities should be, isn’t it?
So why is it that it is sometimes easier to accept complete strangers exactly as they are than it is to accept a neighbor, coworker, or family member? I explore several ideas I have about that in the corresponding podcast episode. Please let me know if you have any ideas you’d like to share with me on the topic.
Galatians 5:6 says we are called to express our faith in love. To live in community together with one another. I love how my bible translates this verse in the footnote. It says because faith expresses itself through love, we can check our love for others as a way to monitor our faith. What a great concept, huh?
Going back to our car show, there were literally hundreds of thousands of people there that day and I felt that in a small way, we had a bond, through our love of old cars, with every one of them. We didn’t know the story of a single one of them and we were completely fine with that. If we can find that kind of connection at a car show and completely overlook any flaws those people may have, we should be able to find something to connect with the people God places in our day to day lives, shouldn’t we?
