Page 4 - C.A.L.L. #34 - Winter 2011/2012
P. 4
“I think this story illustrates what we enter into community with false
all decide to experience when we walk expectations; the problem is we don‟t
into community. We all must accept know what they are. Until those false
that we will get caught in our expectations about what community is
underwear. The journey into community and who we are as individuals within it
must begin with the realization that we are released, there is no chance for
will all be exposed, that we will all feel real community.”
vulnerable, and that we will all be
subjected to the raw truth about each “…Community is hard only because we
other. There are reasons people don‟t like to hide and because we like to lie.
share who they really are. People tend Community is hard because we are
to hide the truth about themselves (more than we like to admit) self-
because exposure would be both centered and arrogant…If you have no
embarrassing and offensive…We fear community in your life, you have no
telling others spiritual immune
the truth system. And
because the isn‟t it painfully
truth is ugly obvious when so
and because many of Jesus‟
rejection is people seem to
likely. We hide struggle with
because we their character,
believe we will mental health,
be able to and integrity in
preserve more relationships by the same way as everyone else? It is
projecting and protecting a false image not that Jesus doesn‟t make a
of ourselves. I get it. But in community difference; it is that the presence of
you kind of decide, “I am going to be Jesus often comes in the package of
exposed, and I am going to see if his people (his body), and we have tried
people will still want to be friends with to live more as individuals than as part
me, if they will still love me once they of something.”
know me.”
“…All communities are formed
ultimately in their underwear. Until you
get to that place of exposure, shock,
and acceptance you are not really
community. In his book Life Together,
Dietrich Bonheoffer called it the shock
of disillusionment. He argued that life
together is not possible until you
confront and progress beyond that
moment when you say, “This stinks; this
is not what I signed up for, and this is
not community.” In other words, we all
