We like to think we are independent. We are taught, particularly in this country, that if we set our mind to something and we commit our entire existence to it, we will achieve it. It is ingrained in us that we need to pull ourselves up by our own bootstraps. We take pride in being able to say, “I am a self-made man.”
While the optimist in me would like to believe that there is truth in all of that, last week, I was reminded that we need one another. I had the amazing gift of getting to spend 3 days with 20 total, yet amazing, strangers. When we converged on the Rapport offices in Las Vegas, Nevada, not one of us had ever met. Nor did we really understand what we were about to experience. But within 24 hours we would be a team – team 2664. At the end of it all, my hope in mankind was renewed by the way we came together.
I watched as 21 people let their guards down and learned to trust one another. We realized that we would not make it through the week without each other. All the conditioning that “I can do this on my own,” was stripped away and we became completely dependent on one another. it was a scary but cathartic undertaking – the result of which was a group of friends who were total strangers just hours before.
There will be many posts in days to come of the lessons learned in the desert of Nevada, but that will take time for me to process. For today, the lesson is community. We need one another. No one is self-made. We might puff up and try to make people think we don’t need anyone. But the cold hard fact of life is that we can’t do this alone – not well anyway.
But here is what could be a revolutionary thought for you – or at least a liberating concept – we were never meant to do this alone. God created us for relationships. Genesis starts out in the very first chapter telling us that the first man needed someone else to be complete. We were created for community. That is how we are wired. We need to know and be known. WE NEED EACH OTHER. This is not an admission of weakness. In fact, it takes more grit and strength to admit we need another than it does to deny the truth and try and go it alone.
This truth is why the church is so important. Church is never to be a place where people put on masks and act as if they are self-sufficient. Church is the place we come for encouragement, support, instruction and relationships that help us make it through our days. If that is not a description of any church that you have ever attended, keep looking – they exist – I happen to belong to one.
Be blessed today!
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Clay in the Hands 