Reed Mueller

The following quotes were culled by Mark Waltz, a pastor in Indiana, as he worked on some thoughts about community. As they reflect very well the perspectives developed in our Life Together / Serving Together series earlier this year, I thought I’d pass them on as reinforcement.

Our life is full of brokenness – broken relationships, broken promises, broken expectations. How can we live that brokenness without becoming bitter and resentful except by returning again and again to God’s faithful presence in our lives? – Henri Nouwe

Community is a place of pain, of the death of ego. In community, we are sacrificing independence and the pseudo-security of being closed up. We can only live this pain if we are certain that for us being in community is our response to a call from God. If we do not have this certitude, then we won’t be able to stay in community. – Jean Vanier [emphasis mine]

The call to community is clear; we can’t escape it. Yet, neither can we escape the fact that leaning into the community we have been placed in (whether we like it or not) – the Body of Christ – is exceedingly difficult. It is difficult because of our brokenness. It is difficult because of others’ brokenness.

In light of this, what Vanier says is so important: we must be certain to take the call to community, to life together, seriously and live it out in faith, through both pain and joy.