This week enjoy a change from our usual liturgical pattern and instead reflect on a daily essay on devotional life.
Beware of Being Alone by Pastor Jeff Cloeter
The more isolated a person is, the more destructive will be the power of sin over him and the more deeply he becomes involved in it, the more disastrous is his isolation.
Dietrich Bonhoeffer
Let him who is not in community beware of being alone. – Martin Luther
I call it my “garage band.” But it has nothing to do with music. It’s a handful of trusted brothers in Christ who sit on camp chairs in my oversized brick garage. We share a beverage together. We laugh, share stories, and talk theology. We pray for and support each other.
The guys in my garage band are my first call if I need help, or if I’m in trouble. I realized years ago that I can’t do this Christian life alone. I’m a flawed man, life is hard, and the devil is real. There is a reason that the church is called “the body of Christ.” We are not only interconnected, but interdependent. Individual tissue and organs cannot stay alive apart from the whole.
There is a time for solitude, standing alone before God. You also need time for community, standing with others in God’s word. We cannot trust ourselves. We need another’s encouragement and accountability. We need a voice other than our own to speak God’s word to us, from the outside. We need a brother or sister to join hands with us and bear with us, and pray with us when our voice has quelled to a whisper. So, God has sent others to us and for us. We dare not deny the treasure of Christian community.