1 Corinthians 12:25-27 (NLT)
This makes for harmony among the members, so that all the members care for each other. If one part suffers, all the parts suffer with it, and if one part is honored, all the parts are glad. All of you together are Christ’s body, and each of you is a part of it.
Over the course of the last few years, I've seen GOD in everything. From songs to films. From nature to writing. From my relationships. GOD’s hands are always evident in such things. As evidence by the following narrative:
Once a year, I read this book titled Into the Wild by John Krakauer. it’s a non-fictional piece about Chris McCandliss, an unassuming young man who dropped out of society before winding up in the wilds of Alaska. Trapped, starving, and incapacitated because of eating poisoned seeds, Chris sought solace in books. Among them a novel dubbed Doctor Zhivago. He underlined this poignant passage before his untimely death:
“And so it turned out that only a life similar to the life of those around us, merging it without a ripple, is genuine life, and that as unshared happiness is not happiness…and this is most vexing of all.”
In the margin of the worn book, Chris had scribbled, “HAPPINESS ONLY REAL WHEN SHARED.”
Now, I suppose this could mean many different things to many different people. But to me, GOD was sharing an insight. One I’d been neglecting. For I, like McCandliss, spent most of my life as a lone wolf. Introverted. Shy. Socially awkward. Wishing to spend time alone and away from people, whether that meant the wilderness and hiking trails, or locked in my apartment and in my head.
And despite a now flourishing relationship with Jesus, I was still missing something.
And that something was community. A church community to be more specific. A community with many equal parts- all of which are needed to grow the whole. A community that is disabled if one of its members is severed by going it alone. I must admit I’d read the above Scriptures for several years before realizing what I’d been subliminally doing. And I came to this troubling conclusion: Without realizing it, I’d taken a part of my old self into my new life with Jesus. While I understand that church relationships were important, I thought I could be feed better on my own- reading my Bible alone, writing my thoughts out alone, gleaning ideas from books and other sources alone. Not that I couldn't learn anything from anybody. But that GOD would speak to me Himself. Directly. No middle people messing things up, distorting the Message.
One of the most beautiful things about GOD (there are many!) is he uses the “church” to speak to the church. He uses me to speak life into others. But he also uses you (yes, you reading this now!) and your gifts to speak to me. Every part of the body- of the community- strengthens and encourages the others! And if we don’t share ourselves and our gifts with others in the body, we are crippling it, weakening it to the point of sickness, and in worst case scenarios, death. We were designed to be in community!
In the book our small group is venturing through, Francis Chan put it this way:
“While every individual needs to obey Jesus’ call to follow, we cannot follow Jesus as individuals. The proper context for every disciple maker is the church… It's impossible to follow Jesus alone.”
No longer do I avoid the big fellowships. No longer do I (pridefully) think I have a better chance of growing on my own than in participating in your lives. Or think I’m on some superior level. I, like McCandliss, have humbly (and somewhat painfully) been shown by GOD that happiness is only happiness if it is shared in the community of Christ.
I’m happy to have learned that before my death. In Alaska or elsewhere.
