While we drove around the other day, we watched a crazy amount of poor drivers on the road. At one point, a class A RV nearly ran a pickup into a barrier! Countless cars ran a red light.
If we think of the red light as the simplest form of community obedience, then those running it are promoting pure anarchy. I don’t know if you have ever seen traffic in countries with zero control. The roads are pure chaos, and accidents are just a normal byproduct.
As we look at traffic control in a greater perspective, those running the red light are selfish. They needed to get somewhere and put others at risk to make their needs happen first. If you swap the red light for the last two loaves of bread on the store shelf, the stakes change entirely.
Fifty packs of toilet paper when their family wouldn’t use ten in a year! Chaos and fear overruled common sense.
Instead of working as a community to ensure everyone (and most importantly every child) had a chance, the few created problems for everyone. Much the same as the person who runs the red light and causes a wreck.
If we are going to make a livable community when the world goes sideways, the time to build it is today. And if you want your community to trust you, then acting in a Christ-like manner today is the right start. Instead of taking the last two loaves off the shelf, you take one and pass the other to the neighbor beside you. Or pass both to the mother with the starving kids and you grab the bag of flour instead.
To borrow a line from Star Trek, ‘The needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few, or the one.’ Your kindness and patience support the community at large. And while I would never suggest letting your own family go hungry, finding ways to share helps everyone make it further.
Community building happens with or without you. Trust is built and taken away. Losing a few minutes today might make you slightly later to that meeting. But you still arrive in one piece, without carrying the burden of having harmed a neighbor in your haste.
Our article on building a preparedness group touches on this. Because the first people joining our preparedness groups are our neighbors, and not knowing them isn’t an excuse. Next week, that same person might have the exact skill your group needs. We never know who we will connect with or who will become close to our hearts.
Community starts when we all become followers of Christ, even when the world turns its back on us and everyone is creating chaos.