((  I found this on a fellow blogger's wall and needed to pass it along ))

My wife, Mary Ann, and I have enjoyed pondering and discussing the following section of Tim Keller’s new book, The Prodigal God.

“In his book The Four Loves, Lewis wrote a striking meditation on his [friend Charles Williams'] death in an essay entitled ‘Friendship.’

In each of my friends there is something that only some other friend can fully bring out.  By myself I am not large enough to call the whole man into activity; I want other lights than my own to show all his facets.  Now that Charles [Williams] is dead, I shall never again see Ronald’s [Tolkien's] reaction to a specifically Charles joke.  Far from having more of Ronald, having him “to myself” now that Charles is away, I have less of Ronald . . . In this, Friendship exhibits a glorious “nearness by resemblance” to heaven itself where the very multitude of the blessed (which no man can number) increases the fruition which each of us has of God.  For every soul, seeing Him in her own way, doubtless communicates that unique vision to all the rest.  That, says an old author, is why the Seraphim in Isaiah’s vision are crying “Holy, Holy, Holy” to one another (Isaiah 6:3).  The more we thus share the Heavenly Bread between us, the more we shall have.

“Lewis is saying that it took a community to know an individual.  How much more would this be true of Jesus Christ?  Christians commonly say they want a relationship with Jesus, that they want to ‘get to know Jesus better.’ You will never be able to do that by yourself.  You must be deeply involved in the church, in the Christian community, with strong relationships of love and accountability.  Only if you are part of a community of believers seeking to resemble, serve, and love Jesus will you ever get to know him and grow into his likeness.”  (Tim Keller, The Prodigal God, pp. 126-127)

Source: http://blog.livinghopeverona.com/?p=75

Community

There have been quite a few times this past months where I've stepped back and thought, "Ahhhh I think I understand now..." One of those times happened to be the last day of Towering Traditions (orientation) training at my university.  Now, this training week consists of early mornings and very late nights with many ice breakers and seminars in between.  By the end of the week not only do you feel like Belmont is the greatest place on earth, but you also feel like you have 134 new family members.  Along with all the "TT" leaders, there are 9 students in charge of us known as the Orientation council or better yet, the OC.  These OC members kind of acted as TT leaders... to the TT leaders... Are you following?  Anyways, throughout that whole week, we worshipped together, ate together, talked together and had fun together.  It was a world in which everyone depended upon each other and encouraged one another the whole way through.  It was beautiful... except when it all ended and classes began.
It's funny because I was almost angry that other students were coming onto campus and it was not just our little TT world anymore.  I had become so comfortable with the group and felt so uplifted that I was scared to leave it and enter into what is I guess known as "reality."  I was upset about this until I realized that just because I was not in training with the other TT leaders anymore does not mean I lost my community.  I do not have to transition to being on my own but rather bring what I learned about community into the rest of my life.  I learned how important it is to surround yourself with not only encouraging people, but reliable people as well.  It would be impossible to have friendship without being able to depend on them to walk through life with you as well. I love that phrase, "Walking through life together..." Isn't that what community is all about?  Walking through life together and holding each other accountable, uplifted and loved all the way through.  Throughout this whole thought process I also learned that you cannot build community if you do not commit time to be with other people.  I used to wonder why some of my friendships would stay shallow until I realized that I had not put the effort into spending time with the other person at all, so of course our friendship never deepened.  I know that one of my love languages is quality time because I enjoy when someone takes the initiative to spend time with me, therefore I give that to other people.

Blah blah blah I am all over the place in this post.  I just have so many ideas bopping around in my mind that I want to type out!

I had the privilege of giving a short devotion during training week about community and found an excerpt from C.S. Lewis's The Four Loves.  (I'll post it after so this one is not a mile long) Moral of the story, we need each other and learn more about not only ourselves but God when we bring out different things in each other.

We are not meant to be alone, even Adam had Eve!  I have always been the most independent person around and thought that I could do better if I just handled it by myself, but my goodness I was wrong.  Now I know why teachers encourage study groups so much... haha AND I always valued one on one communication rather than big groups, and of course those are still important times but how great a group of friends is when everyone is sitting around talking about anything and everything!  Each person is so unique and fun in their own way that most of the time you do not see them fully until they are surrounded by multiple people bringing out every side of them.   Alright, I need to stop and probably organize my thoughts a little better... but God knows how wonderful community is and when based on the right things, it can be the sweetest blessing.