4.16.13

One of my housemates and I reflected on Bonhoeffer's statement, that those who love more their ideal of Christian community more than their actual community will be destroyers of community, despite our best intentions.

It's funny because, before you enter an "intentional community" of sorts, you come across such a statement as his, and you're like "well... yeah. That makes sense. I would NEVER do that." But when you find yourself there, you start to see how real his warning is:

People aren't always going to want to give themselves away. Despite our desire to be "intentional", we're going to find ourselves afraid, bitter, tired. As for me, I struggle with owning myself. And how can we give ourselves, if we can't own ourselves?

Last night, too, you made a remark that as a community you had thought we had "arrived". But, sweetie, we've only been together for 8 months and this brokenness that you and I and all of us are experiencing... it is only the beginning of us really bonding and being united. It's the real US, in our reality, not just who we pretend to be, or who we want to be, that will draw us closer to each other.

We are broken, yet beloved being in Christ. Trust this truth and we'll find the strength to grow. As Christ has told us, people will know we are his disciples by how we love one another.