I’ve been a little more conscious of my humanity and frailty this weekend as I have put my back out and been hobbling around the house. This has meant that I have not taken part in any of the family or church stuff over the weekend – and so I have missed out on a beach walk and a church family event down by the river. I’ve been on the edge of things which has not been great.

It’s been quite a frustrating and painful weekend with me feeling pretty fed up and people coming near experiencing my frustration! It’s weird to reflect that those that I care most about seem to get the brunt of my frustration.

I guess this is a reflection of the fact that we feel less inclined to hide the reality of our situation from those we know that love and care for us. We don’t hide our true feelings from each other and so we expose ourselves, and those we care for, to both the best and worst of our behaviours.

If this is so – then it follows that genuine community (if a family is genuine community and I would say it is the best model) is not going to be the rosy atmosphere that some think it may be. As people in genuine community develop love and trust for each other, the personal guards drop and they become less inclined to put on a show of their behaviour. This means community will be messy and hard work, not a smooth beautiful ride as people sometimes seem to make out.

Community is not the answer to all life’s problems, in fact it will probably present a lot of life’s problems. I believe it is in the realities of situations like this, the rawness of genuine community relations, that the Holy Spirit can work authentically.

Messy but genuine!