We have arrived at a place in our culture and within the Church that is the product of 24-hour in-your-face immediate news, the isolation created by social media and our undisciplined emotions where the first bit of information out of the gate is typically the one most believed. The result of this destructive intersection is people have become confused, fearful and angry.

Hidden in this malaise of misinformation is a gift. The gift is the rediscovery of the value of community. We have created a culture of disconnect. In that disconnect, we can become callous and cruel toward others with opposing opinions. We then begin to shout our opinion from the mountaintop of our limited understanding releasing harmful opinions that have not been correctly filtered by the Spirit and wise counsel. Our opinions join with other like-minded debris rolling off the summit of our judgment like a sludge-laden avalanche of disinformation.

What if you and I simply stopped believing any and everything that is thrown in our face from any source with well-crafted appeals designed to rile us up? What if we found a place of honest community where honor and trust were the filters through which we strained the things that form our thoughts and action?

The hidden gift in our cultural division is the rediscovery of the tribe, of the community, of the small units of family, both in culture and bloodline, where we get to really know each other.  The value of this place is not isolation, but preservation for without community we are left to drift hopelessly in the winds of deception and misinformation arriving at destinations of disaster and dismay – and loneliness.