Living As One of Us

Last week, I had the surreal but pleasant experience of going back to my home high school to give the commencement address.

The first challenge of course was the jokes. They had to be drawn from the “shared” parts of community; from the common experiences of growing up in this particular midwestern town of 1,200 residents.

And the jokes had to bridge the gap of time. They had to not just be funny to me or my classmates from 1996, but they had to be funny to people who attended the high school much later than I did.

Pressure, anyone?

I settled in on a couple jokes about my brother, a member of the high school teaching staff (Sorry, Dave). Since he now works at the high school and lives extremely closeby, he was an easy target when challenging the grads to go “farther” (in the literal sense) than he did.

I also delivered a series of jokes about the almost non-existent crime rate in our town.

If the statistics available are right, they factor to about a 1/2 % crime rate. So I theorized that whoever was going to commit the town’s big crime for the year was probably in the gymnasium as I spoke (since in order for the gym to be full, the whole town has to basically be there). And I challenged the grads that if they saw someone trying to make a quick exit to go rob all the empty houses in town that they should tackle them and thus become the only 18 year old in the U.S. to wipe out a year’s worth of crime in their hometown.

I held my breath as I delivered them, relieved only when the gym erupted in laughter after each cue.

And as they laughed, I thought to myself, that only someone raised in this little town would understand these jokes. That even a more skillful speaker, a more famous author, who had not lived here would not have been able to pull them off. It was necessary for a speaker–on this occasion–to “get” what it was like growing up here.

This stuff had to come from “one of us”.

And in the back of my mind I reflected this is why God sent Jesus to be born into a human town, to be raised here as a man and to share so many common human experiences. He had to get it what its like growing up here on earth.

What he had to say would only make sense if it came from one of us.

That is why its so important that all of us are a part of our local community, don’t you think? No matter what opportunities God gives us, we have to keep one hand on “homebase” so that we maintain our sense of connection to culture. This is what gives us credibility in our local sphere and also what teaches us the skills needed when we communicate on larger platforms (on the internet or via bigger opportunities outside our locale).

So what about you? What do you do to make sure you stay connected to your community?