This essay was originally featured in Logos, Word by Word Blog. An essay in the New York Times Opinion section by journalist Lydia Polgreen caught my eye and spurred my thinking.
In her essay "I Went to Dubai and Caught a Glimpse of the Future," Polgreen explores how people are moving around the world today. She speaks with many migrants to the UAE about their lives far from home and discovers the new lives they have built for themselves.
A quote at the end of the essay caught my attention: “Maybe the future is just participation, not belonging.”
It made me wonder, what if my longing for community was just about my participation? Maybe I needed to stop searching for belonging?
In every era, society has tried to capture a sense of community. The ancient Greeks viewed it through the lens of the polis. Medieval societies centered community around the church. Our understanding of community shifts along with our cultural contexts, technological advancements, and social changes.
How do we conceive of, experience, and practice community today? And what impact might this have on how we seek to reach our neighbors with the gospel?
The rest of the essay can be found at: Where Comfort Goes to Die: Christian Community beyond Homogeneity
What if, as followers of Christ, we are specifically called to build places of belonging for others who might not belong anywhere else?.
The NYT essay was part of a collection of essays on The Great Migration series authored by Lydia Polgreen.
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