Written by Dynamis Ministries | June 30, 2022
For all of you college grads out there, remember the days of living in the dorms? Some of the best and worst of days probably come to mind. Nothing beats the energy, spontaneity and freedom of dorm life. At the same time, communal bathrooms, fighting for laundry machines and the smells and sounds make us shudder. Regardless of how fondly we remember “the dorm days,” one thing we can all relate to is the close proximity in which we lived with others.
As people graduate from college, their living quarters usually grow more distant from others. In fact, there’s an interesting trend that’s observable in today’s culture: Typically, the more income someone earns, the greater distance they live from others. Think about it, some of the poorest communities live in housing developments where an entire family shares a small apartment, while some of the wealthiest people live on estates fairly removed from the rest of society. There’s nothing wrong with having our space and enjoying some privacy, but this can draw us away from God’s design for living.
God isn’t as concerned about where we live as much as whether we live in his presence and connected to others. Our earthly homes are temporary anyway compared to spending eternity in heaven. Speaking of which, some of us will be surprised to discover what our heavenly homes will be like. Jesus gives us a glimpse in John 14:2 when he says, “My father’s house has many rooms; if that were not so, would I have told you that I am going to prepare a place for you?” Considering Jesus’ words and the context of Middle Eastern living in his day, our living spaces in heaven could be most like a single room addition attached to the Father’s house – kind of like a dorm room.
Heaven will be a place of unending resources and abundance, enough for each person to have a gigantic mansion on a hundred acres, and yet Jesus describes something more like a college dorm for our heavenly personal space. And it might even be less private than that as we’ll share the likeness of Jesus’ resurrected body that could move through walls of locked rooms! (John 20:19). The point is that we’re created to live in community, first with God and second with people. Our heavenly homes will accommodate this whereas our earthly homes might not.
Unfortunately, many of us have gone away from living into this design. We’ve distanced ourselves from others and have become more isolated and self-sufficient. As a result, we no longer lean on others for support or look intently on how we can help others. This hinders our generosity. It’s hard for us to be generous when we’re not in community because isolation makes us unaware of the needs around us. We need to return to the design for community that God desires for us. This doesn’t mean we all should sell our homes and move into an apartment complex, but it does mean that no matter what our housing situation, we need to find ways to be close to others. When we take steps to build community, we become filled with more joy and increase the opportunities to be generous.
Photo Credit: Ryan Jacobson
