But now you live dispersed on ribbon roads...

Lately Kels has been talking a lot about “my life for yours.” But what does that mean? Do we really understand what this looks like?

I think we will pick and choose who we will exchange our life for. This person is worthy and this one is not. More so, it seems like this culture (or generation) is content to live dispersed—on their own. The whole idea of not needing a team or a family seems to go against the very grain of “my life for yours.”

Am I really living my life for yours? Or are we going to be little islands unto ourselves never caring about those outside ourselves? TS Elliot puts it much better….

The Question of the Stranger

Of all that was done in the past,
you eat the fruit either rotten or ripe.
And the Church must be forever building,
and always decaying and always being restored.
For where there is no Temple there shall be no homes,
though you have shelters and institutions.

What life have you if you have not life together?
There is no life that is not in community.
And no community not lived in praise of God.

But now you live dispersed on ribbon roads,
And no one knows or cares who is his neighbor
Unless his neighbor makes too much disturbance,
But dash to and fro in motor cars,
Familiar with the roads and settled nowhere.

And the wind shall say, "Here were decent godless people;
Their only monument the asphalt road
And a thousand lost golf balls."

When the Stranger says,
What is the meaning of this city?
Do you huddle together because you love each other?
What will you answer? --

'We all dwell together to make money from each other'?

or 'This is a community'?

And the stranger will depart and return to the desert.

O My soul, be prepared for the coming of the Stranger,
Be prepared for him who knows how to ask questions.

from The Rock by T.S. Eliot

This poem hits the heart of this idea of community. Why do we huddle together? Do we care who our neighbor is only when they make a disturbance? Will our monument on this earth be asphalt roads a lost golf balls or will we have life together and let our community be in prasie to God.

What is the meaning of this city (neighborhood, MT, BSU)? Do you huddle together because you love each other? What will you answer......