I baked cupcakes yesterday. For those who know me, being that culinary is a feat. And, oh, it was glorious taking time away from the hustle and bustle of life, being in the kitchen creating something.
But my dad brought up a very good point. "Who are you baking these for?"
After I provided him with a flippant response, "No one really, just to bake!" I actually started to think about the purpose for baking these delicious morsels (yes, they are that good...haha).
The first thing that came to mind was that I had originally intended to bake them for my lovely friends in Joyner as a going away present, but didn't make the time to do it. So first lesson is simply, timing is everything. Carve out the time to show the people in your life that you care.
But the real whopper is this - I have no strong community here at home. If I were at school, yes, timing of things is still important, but really I could go into the kitchen at any time and bake cupcakes and there would be someone around to appreciate my labor of love. Here, there is no one around.
As a follow up to his question, my dad started brainstorming who we could share these cupcakes with. It was so sad to hear our pathetic little list - his coworkers, my mom's coworkers, Becca's friends at school. I was saddened that we don't have a good relationship with our neighbors and could just take them some cupcakes. We don't even have friends that come over to the house often or a church group to live life with.
I have realized how precious is the community God has blessed me with at Chapel Hill. God has made all of us to live in relationship and community with other people - to walk through this life together, sharing our burdens and our joys. It is my hope that my family can find that.
If my time at Chapel Hill has been anything, it has been about God teaching me that we are not islands meant to walk through life alone. Rather, we are connected to each other in our communities, our cities, our countries, our world. We are brothers and sisters.
Let us love each other deeply.
Let us spur one another on to good deeds.
Let us be one Body, one Beloved.
Anybody want a cupcake?
1 comment:
I completely relate to the issue of community. I don't feel my parents had community as I was growing up, hence coming to college was a big eye-opening experience-- I had no idea community was really possible!
Over the summer, though, it's always weird, having it yet not. I am so glad to be in CH this summer, since I have more friends here than I would have in G-boro or DEF SC (haha), yet there is still so much I've been missing: C-Team meetings, dorm life (crazy as it sounds), seniors that are gone, Bible study... it's a weird feeling to, say, have Alex Terry here without Will Miller. Or to have Kate without you. Or to know Alex and Jen and Ansley and Anthony are all around but half of our C-Team isn't.
Hey, speaking of community and neighbors and stuff, though, last fall I read a book which speaks of the redemption of suburbia, where a lot of that uber-individualistic isolation often happens. It's called The Suburban Christian, and I would definitely recommend it. It's not all about community, but there's definitely some related threads, I think. One of my favorite books of the year because it took on a lot of the things that bother me about my family's mediocre suburbanite existence but also pushed me toward grace and hope rather than bitterness, something I know we've talked about before.
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