The Miller clan recently had an extended vacation in the Lake Cumberland area of Kentucky. There were seventeen of us in a rental vacation home. And yes, we all still liked each other at the end of the week we spent together. You may wonder about the title of this article, Isolation, because seventeen people in one house certainly doesn’t sound like isolation. And you would be right. However, it was the house itself that was isolated.
The house was a twenty-minute drive from a very small town. It was in a gated community. A beautiful setting. But it is a failed gated community that was started a few years ago. I saw markers for up to 139 lots. Yet there were only about 6 or 7 actual houses in the whole development. Before you feel sorry for us, it was a great place for our gathering. We had the area to ourselves. We could be as raucous as we wanted to be and not bother a soul. But the pictures and other internet advertising conveniently failed to show how isolated the house was from most anything and everything else. It was a reminder that we can make things look one way from afar; but up close the reality is hard, if not impossible, to cloak.
I suspect that both a lot of people and a lot of churches are actually functioning in isolation. They may look good on the surface, the image they reveal seems positive and healthy, they talk about community and collaboration, but in reality they are isolated.
It strikes me that one of the most effective things that can break us out of isolation is difficulty (if we’ll allow it). Some tragedy, some loss, some pain can bump us out of the foggy room of isolation and into a realm of effective connection with others. Now don’t get me wrong; I don’t wish tragedy, loss, or pain on anyone – quite the opposite!
Yet time and again I see people and churches rally to each other in moments of extreme difficulty. I see it in local churches when the congregation steps up and around a family after a death or a bad diagnosis or a lost job or… I have watched it take place among churches when there is a fire, or a shooting, or a tornado, or a flood, or…
Difficulty is often utilized by the Spirit to try to tug us out of the gravitational pull toward isolation. Though I’m saddened and distressed by the pain and loss that I see around me (the flooding in eastern KY in the past week brought that all front and center once again), I am encouraged to see God’s people step up and step out to “Do It Together”.
God the Trinity lives in interdependence and relationship. So too ought we. It may be that we are most like God when we are most connected and partnering with each other. Jesus did say that the world would know we are Christians by our love. That can only happen in relationship and connection. Moments of challenge provide a stage for that to be our reality and our posture. It is a reminder that we are not 68 different churches but are one church in 68 locations.
I look forward to our time together in just a few weeks at district conference where Do It Together will be our theme as we build upon the 5 D’s of Depend, Disciple, Develop, Deploy, and Do it Together. It is an honor to walk the journey along with you.
Jeff Miller