After living in the same house for 29 years, my wife and I decided it was time to move. The children had grown up and moved out. The big yard with its fruit trees and gardens was becoming too much work. And we felt as if we were in a rut. It was time for a new challenge.

So, we downsized—from a 1600-square-foot house to a 2200-square-foot townhouse. Our new place is in a slightly smaller city 20 miles away. It is the largest, newest, most functional place we have ever lived in. We feel blessed.

The move also meant that we moved from a neighborhood to a community. We are now part of a “strata” or “homeowners’ association,” which means that we have to work together with our neighbors, the other members of the townhouse complex.

A year after we moved here, I was asked to consider joining the strata council, the elected body that runs the complex. God has a sense of humor. One of the reasons we moved was so that I would no longer have to take care of our big yard. I am now in charge of landscaping for the whole complex.

Since that first year on council, I have been re-elected twice. It is not a great honor. No one else wants the job.

Being on strata council means doing hours of unpaid work every month, often at inconvenient times. It causes a lot of stress as we deal with complex issues, complaints and criticisms, unreasonable demands, violations of the rules necessary for community living, and the weight of responsibility.

So, why do it?

For me, the answer has a history.

Several years ago, I began studying the Old Testament book of Daniel. Daniel and other Jews wer

e suddenly uprooted from their place among the people of God and taken into exile, where they were immersed in the pagan culture of the Babylonian Empire. I realized that there were lessons that could be gleaned from Daniel’s experience, lessons of crucial importance for North American Christians as we are now immersed in a pagan culture of our own. This study eventually led to the book, Living for God in a Pagan Society: What Daniel Can Teach Us (Mill Lake Books).

In the course of that study, I came across a letter written by the prophet Jeremiah in Jerusalem to Daniel and the other exiles in Babylon, telling them how to live in that pagan society. That letter seemed so important that I included a chapter on it in my book about Daniel. Among other things, Jeremiah’s letter said, “Seek the peace and prosperity of the city to which I have carried you into exile. Pray to the Lord for it, because if it prospers, you too will prosper” (Jeremiah 29:7 NIV).

Having written about this letter, I must now practice what I preached. And so, I seek the peace and prosperity of our new city by serving on the strata council.