Community: Crossing the Finish Line Together

This post is dedicated to all people in my life who have been God’s instrument in carving and shaping my life, especially to bunch of people who journey together with me in “the ULTIMATE race”. I called them, community.

One Saturday morning, I had a running appointment with two of my friends at Jurong Lake @LakeSide. Three of us share the same passion on running to different level of degree. Usually, when I run alone, I turn on my mp3 player and put my earplug on my ears. This time, I did not use my mp3 player.

People said that running can help them reflect on a lot of stuffs. After that running session, I realize that I can reflect more, with my mp3 player turnt off. So, during that run, I have a great time pondering running in a group as an analogy to the “whenever two or three people gathered in Thy Name” a.k.a Christian Community. It also awakens my awareness on how blessed I am for the gift of the Catholic Community I am in XD.

1. A good community motivates each other to endure

“ … and let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works.” (Hebrews 10:24)

Everyone can run solo. I often run alone. After certain distance, I sometimes feel bored. When I am not motivated and feeling exhausted ..plus.. nobody encourages me NOT to stop ... I will stop running, and then I walk. Once I am walking, the inertia to start running again is too huge to handle. That is why when I run alone, I have to use my mp3player. I need the music beat and the feedback of the pacing application installed on my iPhone to keep me motivated.

When I run together with my friends, I didn’t need my mp3player. I still turn on my running apps on my phone, but I do not need to put the ear plug on my ears and create my own world.

We are motivated by the presence of one another. The sense that we are together in doing this sustains us to continue running throughout, without stopping.

Just like running solo, many people say that they can grow spiritually without being in any community.. hmm, possible, but I am not one of these. I need the presence of other people to just journey together. Even if I can sustain myself by journeying alone, by relying on good spiritual readings, bible, prayers, just like I endure running alone with my mp3player or pacing apps, without community ... my growth is still incomplete. Only after experiencing “running together” I can then realize the things I would have missed if I only run alone.

Many things can only be experienced together while running, such as, being concerned to others’ progress, sharing the beauty of the scenery, giving encouragements, etc etc. Similarly, no good spiritual readings or any forms of prayers or any other self growth tool can substitute our needs of companions in the journey.. and vice versa.

Besides, community can teach us communal prayer, or even to deepen our personal prayer. While running together and not putting my earphone on my ears, I could listen to the chirping of the morning birds and be more present to the beauty of the lake and trees and the other runners or walkers along the track. The experience encourages me to appreciate the nature more even when I am running solo. Similarly, a good community is a good school of prayer, both for communal as well as personal prayer.

2. A good community drives the people towards the same vision

“Then Elisha prayed, and said, "O LORD, I pray thee, open his eyes that he may see." So the LORD opened the eyes of the young man, and he saw; and behold, the mountain was full of horses and chariots of fire round about Elisha.” (2 Kings 6:17)

Before we started running, I and my friends discussed on the finish line, whether we would like to go back to the starting line or finish somewhere else. We finally agreed to come back to the starting line, Chinese Garden MRT station. Now, there are different routes to go back to Chinese Garden MRT, one is longer and boring, another is shorter and more scenic. We chose the latter. So, everybody then knew their destination and the route to go through.

I have ran along the same route before, however the other two have not. Nevertheless, all of us are all set to reach the destination using the chosen route. When we went through the route, I tried my best to lead the way, since Jurong Lake is “my territory”, haha. After half way, I checked with them whether they prefered to detour to other shorter route, in case they were too tired; or to longer route, in case they felt the route was not challenging enough. But they seemed very determined to stick to the original plan.

A good community communicates its vision to the people and ensures everyone adopt it as their personal vision, meaning, each one desires to achieve that vision. In a good christian community, usually there are some people who are set apart to discern where are they in reaching the destination, they are the leaders of the community. These people are granted by God the grace to “see”, to envision. Like what Uncle Ben always says to Peter, “with great power comes great responsibility”. The leaders are responsible to remind the other people on the vision of the community. They have to pray that other people too may see. In the 2 Kings chapter 6, Prophet Elisha was with a young man when the enemy troops surrounded the city. The young man trembled in fear, but Prophet Elisha saw what the young man did not see. He then prayed to God that the young man too might see. The young man’s eyes were then opened and he could see God’s army, far greater in number than the enemy troops, protecting the city. Just like Elisha, good leaders should lead others towards the same vision, by making it theirs as well.

3. A good community enjoys the presence of one another but stays focus towards the vision

"We ought always to thank God for you, brothers and sisters, and rightly so, because your faith is growing more and more, and the love all of you have for one another is increasing." (2 Thes 1:3)

While running together, it felt really weird if we did not interact. So, we talked, we joked, we laughed and it was really fun, until we started panting and running out of breath. Too much recreation while running can be a distraction and may take up some energy that is supposedly use for running.

Each person, to certain degree, needs acceptance and agreement. One can obtain these only from other people. Being In a wonderful community that is full of loving people, it is so hard not to feel attached towards the people. Community can be a place where one feel accepted and welcomed. Of course this is a good thing. We are not only physical and spiritual being, we too are emotional being.

A community living should not be bounded by regular prayer meetings alone. it is perfectly fine to occasionally have something "not too spiritual" for the sake of enjoying each other's presence. That being said, emotional bonding should always be accompanied by spiritual bonding.

St Paul praise the Thessalonians for their increasing faith and then for their great love to one another. An elder in my community once told us, "a good community plays hard, and prays harder".

Good things can sometimes be distractions for the greater good. This is why a good vision and its' frequent assessment are needed to minimize distractions.

4. A good community care for each other’s spiritual growth

“As Iron sharpens iron, so one man sharpens another.” (Proverbs 27:17)

Three of us have differing amount of stamina and endurance depending on years and regularity of training. There were times when we ran too fast, that one of us asked us to slow down. He could ask us to run ahead, leaving him running alone, but he didn’t. It took him extra humility to ask the rest to slow down to accompany him. So we reduced the speed a bit and he continued running as fast as he could.

In a community, in terms of spiritual life, some are more mature, some may have just started.
Regardless of this, all must help each other to grow. And, obviously, more is expected from the more mature ones. They should help those who struggle more.

Those who pray more should patiently spend some time to accompany the other and teach them how to pray, by praying together, of course to the level of the those learning how to pray. Those who have more experience in spiritual life should spend sometime to share their stories of and with God to the others.

I realize that this relationship should not be forced, not even by the leaders. Some community leaders assigned mentors to the younger ones in terms of spiritual life. Fine, so long as both, mentor and mentee, are willing to journey together, otherwise, “mentor”- “mentee” will just be labels for the persons. In my opinion (i emphasize .. in my opinion), it is not humble for someone to approach others and offering mentorship relationship, “do you want me to disciple you?”. Ok, Jesus can do that to the disciples, He is God.

I think, the most natural way is for the the “mentee” to approach people whose life has attracted him or her. Sometimes the temptation is for people to be discouraged looking at their own weaknesses and looking at the others' virtues, and come to conclusion that they are from different league. It can be a little bit uncomfortable at times to tell others, “hey, I feel you make me wants to grow in my relationship with God, can you help me?”. But, just do it. What I can say is that spiritual confidante is truly a wonderful thing to be sought after.

I m glad there are more mature people in my community that are always ready to give advise and share their stories (unless they are really really occupied). Amazingly they can relate to me even when i am at the pit. They offered me suggestions. But actually, by just witnessing their faithfulness from their stories, I am already inspired to be faithful.

5. A good community celebrates together at the Final Destination

"I have fought the good fight. I have finished the race. I have kept the faith." (2 Tim 4:7)

When we saw Chinese Garden MRT from the distance, we knew we are approaching. We ran faster and faster. When we reached the finish line, we felt so proud of each other. We congratulated one another. Though we felt tired, we felt fulfilled, mission accomplished and we had put all our best effort to accomplish it. To our hearts’ content, the one who asked us to slow down actually ran faster than me and the other friend, crossing the finish line first... Awesome!

Simply said, there will be great joy for everyone in the community when they cross the finish line, when they see that the vision of the community is realized.

Our practice session together is just one among many races that we join. For us, this is part of our preparation for the “real” race on the end of this year, Standard Chartered Marathon. There are many races, but there is one ULTIMATE race, the one that St Paul was referring to in his final goodbye message to Timothy. There are many finishing lines, vision statements, goals, whatever the name is, but there is only one ULTIMATE finishing line, Heaven.

I wonder, how the joy will be like for us when all brothers,sisters (myself included) in my community cross that one ULTIMATE finishing line... I can only imagine. That will be beyond joyful.