The Reality of Community

I live in a very, very close community of about 75 believers. We work together, we live together, we have the same schedules, use the same grocery store, eat the same places, know when each other is home, get each other's illnesses ... we share just about everything.

I have to admit, it drives me crazy a lot of the time. It's like a big family, where everyone knows your business all the time, has an opinion about it all the time, and what's more, just like a family feels a right to be in your life and know what you are doing. People invite themselves over, sometimes without so much as a knock but instead just walking in. They can see in the kitchen window, and will comment the next day on how good that pasta looked that I was making... and I won't even have been aware they saw me. I love knowing people, and really being known here, but having people constantly in my personal life gets to me sometimes. But that is the reality of living in community.

I was thinking about this community aspect especially this evening as I was collecting my laundry. All of us share four washing machines and four dryers, and the common thing to do is if you are moving your wet stuff into a dryer, you take what is already in the dryer out and fold the clothes for that person. This doesn't always happen, but most of the time people are pretty good about doing it. This of course means whoever is folding your clothes gets a good look at everything, including your underwear and your ratty pajamas. And you know pretty much whose clothes they are because, like I said, we do everything together.

I have folded everyone's underwear on this team, I'm sure of it. And what's more, they have folded mine. And it's not like the boys and girls laundries are separate. So, I have to assume many of the boys have handled my unmentionables. And that's a weird concept to get used to. But, that is also the reality of community. We know each other well, including what each wears to bed and under their clothes. Hmmmm.....