It is true, of course, that what is an unspeakable gift of God for the lonely individual is easily disregarded and trodden under foot by those who have the gift every day. It is easily forgotten that the fellowship of Christian brethren is a gift of grace, a gift of the Kingdom of God that any day may be taken from us, that the time that still separates us from utter loneliness may be brief indeed. Therefore, let him who until now has had the privilege of living in common Christian life with other Christians praise God’s grace from the bottom of his heart. Let him thank God on his knees and declare: It is grace, nothing but grace, that we are allowed to live in community with Christian brethren.
- Bonhoeffer, Life TogetherHaving chosen to follow Christ later in life means it is sometimes difficult to find community - I have a lot of friends who don't share these beliefs that I hold dear. While I treasure each and every precious friend, beliefs aside, Christians need to fellowship with other believers. There have been seasons where there simply wasn't a whole lot of community around me, and then there have been seasons where I willfully rejected community. Both hurt.
A member of my old church posted this passage the other day. Community is a precious gift, and I hope we never take it lightly.
-bRob
I saw your post on Oh, Hello Friend and thought I'd stop by to say hi.
ReplyDeleteI must say I think it is by the grace of God that I found your blog. I, too, chose to follow God later in life and struggle with the same fellowship issue you do. While I think it is a great opportunity to minister to my non-believing friends when the time is right, I also feel a huge lack of Christian fellowship. It would be nice to find some!
My other problem with fellowship is that I fall into the 'married with no kids' group. All of my friends are either single or 'married with kids', so that makes things difficult, too.
So, am I follower #6? :-)
Oops! Just saw I'll be #12! ;-)
ReplyDeleteYou have such a precious blog here. Real honesty is hard to come by sometimes. I love that Bonhoeffer quote, rings so true. God bless =) x
ReplyDeleteThank-you both for your sweet comments! This quote definitely meant a lot to me, too.
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