You know, I think about community a lot.
A lot, I tell you.
And I’ve been thinking about it lately – how I long for more of it, how I’m thankful for the certain amount of real community that I do have and how excited I am about new potential as well.
We live in a world full of quick connections, friends categorized in lists and followers of 140 characters (or less). We are able to connect with more people at one time than ever in history, and in a lot of ways that’s a good thing. But one thing has never changed:
Real friends are harder to come by than you think.
Real community is, too. These sort of relationships are risky and sacrificial, which is not a way of life our culture typically recommends. That needs to change. Jesus changed it, and there was no greater love ever shown.
Henri Nouwen says it this way:
When we honestly ask ourselves which person in our lives means the most to us, we often find that it is those who, instead of giving advice, solutions, or cures, have chosen rather to share our pain and touch our wounds with a warm and tender hand. The friend who can be silent with us in a moment of despair or confusion, who can stay with us in an hour of grief and bereavement, who can tolerate not knowing… not healing, not curing… that is a friend who cares.
Do you have people like this in your life?
More importantly, are you this person in someone else’s life?
so good to read this morning. and so true. i’m eternally thankful to call you friend
likewise, man…
One of my favorite quotes…
Thank you so much for sharing….
Thank you, Josh! I am so often too quick to give advice to try to fix a situation. Thank you for the reminder on how to be a true friend.
Great quote man. You always know how to get to the heart of it..
Knowing my answers to those questions, this post comes as a challenge to me. Thanks for the challenge though, it was needed.