living in community and "About a Boy"

I have seen this movie enough that Joe and I use quotes from it as our daily-living-language. I enjoy Nick Hornby's writing, so I thought I would finally check out the book, since nearly 99% of the time the book is better than the movie, right?

It was interesting reading a book of a movie I knew so well. I wasn't sure it would keep my attention, but it did. The parts that weren't in the movie that the book had were interesting, but I can see that the screenplay writers kept the essence of the story and the characters very well in tact, which must be done in an adaptation since it's impossible to deliver all the details of a book in two hour movie limitation.

If you didn't know, the book is about a man, actually. Well, an adult male, named Will, who believes he is able to fully sustain himself without any need for relationships, except at the most shallow level. He basically has lived his adult life worshiping and serving himself. Then, through a egotistical (and comical when delivered on screen by Hugh Grant) plan to pick-up on single moms, he becomes connected to a pre-teen boy. Through this relationship somewhat forced upon him, his life becomes beautifully messy. He tries to fight against the complications of caring for others, but realizes that the clean, put-together life that he had been living was empty. And, to remain in that life with no passion, no hardship, no serving and caring, he was "kind of... blank".

What has drawn me to this story is the undeniable need we have for community and the undeniable desire we have to serve ourselves. As Christians, we are called to our own individual faith, but we cannot fully image God without being in community. Community, here, is defined as the social circles we associate in, where we serve and pour ourselves out for others. To truly live in community, you have to train yourself. I still fight my instincts of saying "no" because I just don't want to figure out how to serve someone, even a friend. However, serving others, sharing your life with them, as Paul writes to the Thessalonians, is how we can image God more fully. Since God in himself is three in one, in constant community with himself, by isolating ourselves because we worship ourselves and our comfort, we deny opportunities to grow in Christ by showing love for others and allowing them to show love to us. Committing to relationships is knowing that your life will get messy, be uncomfortable and probably difficult, but the rewards are greater, the joy is deeper and we grow closer to Christ because we can more easily recognize our need for him. May the Lord bless you with a messy life full of relationships that bring you closer to him.