by Rich DuBose
The importance of accepting that we are part of a community cannot be overstated. As much as some try to isolate themselves, it is a myth that people can survive on their own. We need each other because life on this planet is unpredictable, and at times, incredibly dangerous.
Some resist the community idea by becoming individuals known as survivalists—which are people who stockpile food, weapons and tactical knowledge. Perhaps they see themselves as part of a unique community that is totally focused on saving their skin.
They build bunkers in their basements, backyards, or out in the woods where they store everything for the coming “doomsday” they believe is imminent.
There are multiple reasons why people become survivalists, but surely fear is high on the list. Some are afraid of their neighbors, of immigrants and of people who look or act different. They are afraid of change—which is really hard because we live in an ever-changing world.
Writer, Jenny Sinclair, said we should, “Collaborate across the things which divide us.” Instead of running from each other’s differences we should celebrate the fact that no one is the same. Dissimilarity is the hidden gold that fools cast aside in their search for uniformity. To promote racial supremacy of any color or ethnicity is to dumb down the exquisite for the mundane—the beautifully complex for monaural shallowness.
One of the benefits of building a positive community is that we are able to pool our knowledge and expertise to benefit the whole. Some feel threatened by those who work to protect them, as seen by those who ignore evacuation orders in the face of a Category 5 hurricane. When we resist the overtures to a shared life, we expose ourselves to unnecessary danger and loss.
“On a November day in 1721, a small bomb was hurled through the window of a local Boston Reverend named Cotton Mather. Attached to the explosive, which fortunately did not detonate, was the message: ‘Cotton Mather, you dog, dam you! I’ll inoculate you with this; with a pox to you.’ This was not a religiously motivated act of terrorism, but a violent response to Reverend Mather’s active promotion of smallpox inoculation. The smallpox epidemic that struck Boston in 1721 was one of the most deadly of the century in colonial America, but was also the catalyst for the first major application of preventative inoculation in the colonies.”
The leaders in Boston promoted the inoculation because they wanted to protect and preserve their community.
“Right from the beginning of the Bible, God calls people to live in relationship with him and each other. So why are we experiencing such economic and social inequality, cultural polarisation across the western world as reflected in Brexit, Le Pen, Trump and a UK general election? To what and to whom do we want to belong?” —Fleur Dorrell
I don’t have the answer, but one thing is clear. God wants people to be in relationships, families, communities, and within larger networks of people. And he wants them to live in harmony.
“You shall not spread a false report. You shall not join hands with a wicked man to be a malicious witness. You shall not fall in with many to do evil, nor shall you bear witness in a lawsuit, siding with the many, so as to pervert justice.” —Exodus 23:1,2.
“Jeremiah 29 says: ‘Seek the welfare of the city where I have sent you into exile, and pray to the Lord on its behalf, for in its welfare you will find your welfare.’ Good citizenship of the community where you live involves asking what you have in common with others – good schools, clean and safer streets, nice parks, a wage that you can support a family on – we have an interest in these things, as do others in our community of fate, be they Muslims, Sikhs, or secularists.” —Luke Bretherto
“Our currency is love, hope, human dignity, family, [and] interdependence.” —Jenny Sinclair
“Commenting on the many economic and social problems that American society confronts, Newsweek columnist Robert J. Samuelson once wrote: ‘We face a choice between a society where people accept modest sacrifices for a common good or a more contentious society where groups selfishly protect their own benefits.’ The common good has been an important ethical concept in a society that has encouraged many to ‘look out for Number 1.’" —Markkula Center for Applied Ethics
As much as we like to think of ourselves as rugged individuals who can stand alone against the world, we are unquestionably interconnected and dependent upon those around us. When one suffers we all eventually feel the fall-out, though it may not affect us the same.
Be a Helper
Children’s Television personality, Mister Rogers once related the following story.
“When I was a boy and I would see scary things in the news my mother would say to me, ‘Look for the helpers. You will always find people who are helping.’ To this day, especially in times of ‘disaster,’ I remember my mother’s words and I am always comforted by realizing that there are still so many helpers – so many caring people in this world.”
There is no higher calling and purpose in life than to be a helper—one who is willing to spend and be spent for the good of the whole.
Rich DuBose writes from Northern California |
On the web at: richdubose.com. All Rights Reserved © 2025. Join me on Blue Sky @spiritrenew.bsky.social.
Scripture quotations marked (NLT) are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright ©1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.