“If you’ve gotten anything at all out of following Christ, if His love has made any difference in your life, if being in a community of the Spirit means anything to you, if you have a heart, if you care -- then do me a favor: Agree with each other, love each other, be deep-spirited friends. Don’t push your way to the front; don’t sweet-talk your way to the top. Put yourself aside, and help others get ahead. Don’t be obsessed with getting your own advantage. Forget yourselves long enough to lend a helping hand.” (Philippians 2:1-4 The Message)
July 4th, Independence Day in the US, is now in our rearview mirror. We have celebrated our independence and our freedom, and rightly so. And yet it seems that today our drive for independence and freedom means I can do whatever I want, no matter the consequences on others. The polarization of society and the news headlines seem to indicate as much. Maybe we need another holiday – Interdependence Day, a day that we embrace interdependence without seeing it as a threat to our freedom.
The Christian life is an intensely personal matter, for the Spirit of Christ dwells at the very core of our beings. But it is never a private affair just between us and God. The interdependence found in Christian community provides the means of support to stay on the right road and the corrective against going down our own paths of self-obsession and sometimes self-destruction. It also provides a witness to the world that an other-focused interdependence is much healthier in the long run than a self-absorbed independence.
-- Rev. David T. Wilkinson, SOUND BITES Ministry
#5385
No comments:
Post a Comment
Thank you for sharing your comments about a quote or about this ministry. Please include your name and what state or country you live in. If you do not have a registered profile, you can login using the "Anonymous" tag in the "Comment as:" box below.
Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.