Day 3: Better Together

Choosing community over isolation can be downright scary. It requires us to take a risk. But God purposefully places us in community so that those around us can help us in the battle for our thought lives. When our minds are chaotic, our thoughts are spiraling, and our emotions are running the show, our escape plan can include simply reaching out and whispering that word: "Help."

Researcher and author Brené Brown said, "Vulnerability is the core, the heart, the center, of meaningful human experiences." Or put another way: we must be known in order to be healthy. So tell me the people who know you and how deep that knowledge runs, and I will tell you how healthy you are.

Many of us are in trouble in that regard, though, because there are real, legitimate challenges to living in meaningful community. In fact, the more people I encounter, the more valid reasons I hear for why community “just isn't for me.” For example, you might live in a super-small town, or perhaps you're a full-on introvert, who finds interacting with new people stressful and exhausting. Maybe you’ve suffered a painful betrayal – or more than one –And that keeps you from engaging now. You risked trusting someone with your struggle, and that decision came back to bite you. "Not doing that again,” you say.

To these and a thousand other pushbacks, I have only one response: I get it! We can't control how people will respond once we've let them in. They might say something insensitive or be awful in some new and inventive way. People can be jerks and flighty, inconsiderate, self-centered, and forgetful. I know this because I am a person, and I've been all of these things at some point. As, no doubt, you have been as well.

Nonetheless, relationships are worth the hard work. Certainly every valuable relationship in my life is one I have had to fight for.

So instead of letting the enemy hold you captive in isolation, remind yourself of this truth: I have a choice. I can remember that the Spirit of God lives inside me and will walk with me as I reach out to others who are just as human and just as in need of connection and grace as I am.

PRAYER: God, help me risk being known by You and others today. Amen.