“A community is the mental and spiritual condition

of knowing that the place is shared,

and that the people who share the place

define and limit the possibilities of each other's lives.

It is the knowledge that people have of each other,

their concern for each other,

their trust in each other,

the freedom with which they come and go among themselves.”

--Wendell Berry

 

Berry's definition of community as a mental and spiritual condition suggests that a healthy sense of community will naturally rise from an environment that fosters such a condition. Government's 

responsibility regarding community is indirect but closely related to its core responsibility to actively protect the public welfare. Government then has the opportunity, if not the responsibility, to be a "stage setter" for a healthy sense of community.

 

The shared pursuit of community--the "in common-ness" dimension--is profoundly spiritual in that it engages our God-endowed human spirit to seek significance. Confidence rises from interdependent experience in the shared space. A sense of power emerges from the symbiotic exchanges of trusting and being trusted; accepting and being accepted; caring and being cared for.  As community forms, grows, and strengthens through these exchanges, a primal human need for significance and meaning is met. In these ways community is deeply spiritual, inviting the blessing of God in its formation and experience. 

 

Thus healthy community, guided by its Creator, swells to define possibilities. It flexes and seeks alternatives to social and political gridlocks, challenges mistrust in institutions and organizations, and actively engages change for greater good in the space it occupies.    

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Good government, attending its responsibility to honor God and to protect the public welfare, will proactively exercise its ability to develop and produce a variety of inviting environments, both public and private, that become the "space" of Berry's definition in which people define and limit the possibilities of each other's lives. Thus, good government will foster healthy community.

 

We pray for good government that intentionally and proactively sets the stage for healthy community and God's use of those efforts for His purpose among us.