The Power (and Covenant) of Community
Do you ever get words stuck in your head? Or notice a specific word or concept popping up over and over? These last few weeks, “community” keeps working its way into my thoughts.
Being physically separated or isolated from our communities right now, not able to “meet together oft” (3 Nephi 18:22), has made me think a lot about the importance and power of community.
A few weeks ago, I watched Just Mercy and noticed how this theme weaves its way through the storylines. For the inmates who are physically cut off from the outside world and for their families and friends and neighbors trying to band together against the injustices they’re facing, the strength of those relationships and connections is what got them through incredibly difficult circumstances.
It can be really lonely, feeling physically cut off from friends, neighbors, family, community. President Uchtdorf wrote an article last week with some words of advice for getting through this time of physical distancing: “During this time, we have learned how important and vital it is to our well-being to stay socially close to family, friends, and our brothers and sisters in the Church of Jesus Christ.”
This is one of the reasons I’m so grateful for my MWEG community — my sisters here who I can still interact with and who support me (and whom I can support).
Another factor that keeps bringing this topic to my mind is that there is so much division in our communities right now. Just in the city where I live, there have been protests and counter-protests that have turned violent, elected officials stirring up problems and sowing division between fellow elected officials and community members, people showing up at community meetings and shouting down others who disagree with them. This is not a community — not as the Lord has envisioned and commanded us to create. It certainly feels less than Zion-like, as we are obviously not “of one heart and one mind” (Moses 7:18).
We often hear that salvation is an individual matter. This is true in that I can’t save anyone else, and no one else can save me (other than Christ). But it’s also true that we can’t be saved by only concerning ourselves with our own salvation. This is not an “every woman for herself” situation. If our goal is Zion, Zion is a community where we are all connected and love and care for one another.
Our baptismal covenants largely focus on how we treat others, how we build and serve our communities. Mosiah 18 talks about coming into the fold of God — becoming a part of this community of saints — and then it lists some of the requirements for doing so: “And are willing to bear one another’s burdens, that they may be light; Yea, and are willing to mourn with those that mourn; yea, and comfort those that stand in need of comfort… having their hearts knit together in unity and love one towards another.”
This doesn’t mean we’re going to all agree all the time. But it does mean we can reach out in love to those around us who are struggling or allow others to help and lift us when we’re struggling.
I love the story of the people in 4 Nephi who followed these principles, who cared for and supported one another, who had eliminated contentions and divisions, who had the love of God in their hearts. “Surely there could not be a happier people among all the people who had been created by the hand of God” (4 Nephi 1:16).
There is so much power, beyond just the happiness and peace within their community, that came from living by these principles. They were “blessed. . . in all their doings” until they allowed divisions to again fragment their community.
We also see this power with some of the stories of the early Saints working together and helping each other to cross the plains, or in modern times like when church and community members rally together following a natural disaster. Or even here at MWEG. I love the concept and implementation of the MWEG tree and how we work together collaboratively, each having a role to help, lift, and support each other.
There is power when we work together, when we lift each other, when we show love and care as the Savior would.
Whether that’s in your local/physical community, your family, or a community like the one we’ve built here, you can find strength and power in keeping those commandments to love and serve as the Savior did. And we are promised when we do this to “always have His spirit to be with us,” so that even when we may be physically isolated, we do not have to be alone.
Megan Blood Seawright is the senior director of the peaceful root for Mormon Women for Ethical Government. She also serves as communications director.
