There are these meta-narratives in my life: words, ideas, concepts that swirl around constantly looking for something to grab hold of, to have flesh put on them.

Words like

love,

hope,

community.

I can talk the talk, but do I walk the walk?

The past few weeks have been up and down for me, whether due to work, personal, or relational issues. Yet I go to work and put on a mask. I go to church and put on my mask. I go out with friends and put on the mask.

Time to take the masks off.

We live in a society that tells us we should be self-sufficient, that we don’t need anything or anyone else. Independence is held up as the ultimate goal.

The truth? It’s all lies.

We were made to live in community.

We are meant to be interdependent. In the beginning of the Bible, a man asks the question, “Am I my brother’s keeper?”. So often we ask this question incredulously, as if to say, of course not! The very next verse challenges us: “Your brother’s blood cries out to me from the ground.” We are our brother’s keeper. We are meant to live in community. To ask the difficult questions of each other. To wrestle and struggle and laugh and cry and celebrate and mourn and play alongside each other.

We are a broken people, and it is only when we honestly, courageously, and often painfully, face our junk head-on that we can begin to live into all that we were made to be.

“You were created to love and be loved. You were meant to live life in relationship with other people, to know and be known. You need to know that your story is important and that you’re part of a bigger story. You need to know that your life matters.”

[TWLOHA]

I can only know myself as deeply as I am willing to be known.