community of handicaps...

friends...
wow, been a crazy week or so. the family was hit with a stomach bug last week...so we were down for a few days. lots of spiritual warfare last week...i should have blogged you guys to be praying for us. learning as we go. thanks for your ongoing prayers...this ministry and work is actively coming against the enemy, Satan. So, we need your support.

Anyway, thought i would share a few thoughts that have been hitting me about "brotherhood"...what does that really look like?

The first from Paul...
2 Corinthians 12:9-10 (The Message)
7-10Because of the extravagance of those revelations, and so I wouldn't get a big head, I was given the gift of a handicap to keep me in constant touch with my limitations. Satan's angel did his best to get me down; what he in fact did was push me to my knees. No danger then of walking around high and mighty! At first I didn't think of it as a gift, and begged God to remove it. Three times I did that, and then he told me, My grace is enough; it's all you need. My strength comes into its own in your weakness.Once I heard that, I was glad to let it happen. I quit focusing on the handicap and began appreciating the gift. It was a case of Christ's strength moving in on my weakness. Now I take limitations in stride, and with good cheer, these limitations that cut me down to size—abuse, accidents, opposition, bad breaks. I just let Christ take over! And so the weaker I get, the stronger I become.

Next, from a brother named Nate Larkin who wrote "Samson and the Pirate Monks"... (i am reading this book right now...powerful story and community)
"Considering Paul's problem and God's response, I was suddenly struck by the possibility that God's apparent inaction in a painful area of my life might have been deliberate. Maybe, just maybe, God knew I needed that problem. He hadn't afflicted me with it, that was clear, but maybe he loved me too much to take it away. Maybe that problem was the only lever in my life big enough to force me out of my determined isolation and into honest relationships with other members of the body of Christ."

So, I guess (i know) pain/handicaps/thorns are our "lever" into community...our brokenness paves the way for community...
No brokenness, No community.
Know brokenness, Know community.