Created for Community
Something happens to us when we consult one another in Christian community. In sharing our thoughts with others, surprising insights often emerge—opening our eyes to what we have not seen and our ears to what we have not heard.
This can transform and liberate us beyond our own narrow expectations. Both the one experiencing a call and those helping that person may express God’s wisdom and grace in the process. “I will give you shepherds after my own heart, who will feed you with knowledge and understanding” (Jer.3:15).
Although God calls each of us personally, as individuals we see only partially. Individual perception, reasoning, and understanding are always limited. Even a person who feels absolutely certain that a specific revelation comes from God may be mistaken as to how it is to be applied.
Because God often reveals part of the picture to one person and another part to another person, it is prudent to consult one another to discern God’s counsel, guidance, and direction, even if there is no apparent reason to do so.
While circumstances sometimes require us to act without consulting others, the danger of arrogance and error in proceeding on our own can be great.
—Suzanne G. Farnham
Listening Hearts
Fulfilment doesn’t come from being isolated, with barriers up and masks on. It doesn’t come from independence; it comes from interdependence. Fulfilment comes from being in community. That’s the way God designed us. In the beginning God said, “Let us make mankind in our image, in our likeness” (Genesis 1:26). Notice the plural pronouns: us and our. God is community within himself—the Trinity, Father, Son and Holy Spirit. He made us in his image, to be in community. That’s the way he intends for us to live. “For just as each of us has one body with many members, and these members do not all have the same function, so in Christ we, though many, form one body, and each member belongs to all the others” (Romans 12:4, 5). We need each other. We just don’t realize how much because we are taught to be independent. But we can only fulfill his design and purposes for our lives in community, in his family, in relationships with each other. Community and connection are vitally important. Who are you sharing this journey with? How are you experiencing interdependence? —DH
—David Hoskins, Founder & Care Guide, Sanctuary Clinics