Daily Lent Devotional #5 (March 13, 2011)

Ecclesiastes 4: 9-12 (New Living Translation)

⁹ “Two people are better off than one, for they can help each other succeed. ¹⁰ If one person falls, the other can reach out and help. But someone who falls alone is in real trouble. ¹¹ Likewise, two people lying close together can keep each other warm. But how can one be warm alone? ¹² A person standing alone can be attacked and defeated, but two can stand back-to-back and conquer. Three are even better, for a triple-braided cord is not easily broken.”

At NBFMC, we have spent the past few months discussing “recovery” from our hurts, habits, and hang-ups.  We have learned about God’s ways of healing us and how a big part of that is the involvement of others.  We live in the U.S., which is an individualistic society.  Each of us are supposed to take care of ourselves.  “We don’t need help from anybody!”  So, in order to cope with the problems of life that face all of us, we have the “self-help” section of our bookstores.  We seek advice in columns and on websites from complete strangers.  We hire other strangers (known as “counselors”…which is my former profession) to listen to our issues, because we don’t believe that those closest to us could handle the raw truth from us.  We live in neighborhoods, isolated and unknown from those we live beside.  We have turned a life that was meant to be lived in loving community into an island unto ourselves….a form of voluntary, solitary confinement.

God’s Plan is bigger and more challenging than that small view of life.  We are called to allow people in to the rooms of our home and life.  We are called to forgive faults and be patient with others, as we pray that they will be patient with us.  When we’re hurt or offended, we are urged to not return to the solitude of our cell, but to reach out in faith and hope again to people.  We share our hurts and hopes with others, holding each other up in prayer and accountability out of obedience to God.  God (the ultimate, 3-in-1 Loving Community) designed us for life together, even though it is much messier and unpredictable than our planned-out program of detached solitude.

I pray that each of us would embrace the challenge and blessings of fellowship and accountability.  It can be very hard, but most of the best things in life are hard and take some work. 🙂

Blessings,

Pastor Josh