Here Is Joy

Here is how community looked in the early church: “Every day they continued to meet together in the temple courts. They broke bread in their homes and ate together with glad and sincere hearts, praising God and enjoying the favor of all the people. And the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved” (Acts 2:46-47). The Bible warns against living outside a Christian community when it says, “And let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds. Let us not give up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but let us encourage one another — and all the more as you see the Day approaching” (Hebrews 10:24-25).

But to live alone is to live without joy. Better to live with a group of people where you have to work at getting along with each other, than living alone so that you never struggle with relationships. This is the way we were made. We were designed to live in community with each other, not isolated aloneness. You cannot live in joy when you are going against the grain of the way you were designed. And you were designed to live closely with other people, not far away from them. You need other people who can balance you, correct you, encourage you, discipline you and help you. We were not made to live alone, and we enormously benefit from being in community with each other.

Early in the year 2000, a 26-year-old former computer systems manager from Dallas moved into an empty house with only his laptop computer and the clothes on his back. It was an experiment to prove how wired the world is. Mitch Maddox, who changed his name to DotComGuy, did not leave the house for nearly a year. He wanted to prove that you could live alone and survive on products bought only over the Internet, from food to clothing, furniture, books and everything needed for life. Digital video cameras were set up around the house to monitor his progress and broadcast his activities on the Internet. The newspaper said: “Isolation is likely to prove the biggest challenge.” DotComGuy occasionally referred to himself as the Internet version of a pet rock. He is now engaged to a girl he met in a chat room. The article did not say if they have ever actually met. But one person did not find this unusual. He wrote: “I don’t go out of the house much either. I buy my books from Amazon, my food from Kozmo and I get my music from Napster. I socialize with my friends using Internet Relay Chat. I do my banking online, and I telecommute to work. Most of my friends have the same lifestyle.” But this has also sparked some reaction by others. For instance, a Chicago Tribune columnist, 42-year-old Eric Zorn, has dubbed himself “NotComGuy.” The article says: “Irked at his own dependence on technology, NotComGuy has vowed to eschew all tech-gadgets for a week and — gasp — reach out to other humans for all his needs.” Now there is an innovative idea

The second thing that I see robbing us of joy is: Living for the Material World. Things cannot satisfy the deepest longings of the human heart. Things are often used as a band-aid to cover the deep wound in our inner being caused by the neglect of the spiritual part of our lives. Somehow we have to get back to the understanding that we are spiritual beings and that material things cannot satisfy us. Jesus said, “Consider how the lilies grow. They do not labor or spin. Yet I tell you, not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these. If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today, and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, how much more will he clothe you, O you of little faith And do not set your heart on what you will eat or drink; do not worry about it. For the pagan world runs after all such things, and your Father knows that you need them. But seek his kingdom, and these things will be given to you as well. Do not be afraid, little flock, for your Father has been pleased to give you the kingdom” (Luke 12:27-32). Here is joy, and it cannot be found anywhere else. Paul talked of those who live only for the material and sensate world when he said: “For, as I have often told you before and now say again even with tears, many live as enemies of the cross of Christ. Their destiny is destruction, their god is their stomach, and their glory is in their shame. Their mind is on earthly things. But our citizenship is in heaven. And we eagerly await a Savior from there, the Lord Jesus Christ” (Philippians 3:18-20).