What We Take For Granted
What is something you take for granted? Most likely it’s something you’ve become so used to that you don’t realize how much you appreciate it until it’s not there anymore. Like electricity. Or a car that cranks. Or the first cup of coffee in the morning. In his classic book on biblical community entitledLife Together, Dietrich Bonhoeffer proposes that one thing many Christians take for granted is each other. As a congregation we have ample opportunity to be together, and if we’re not careful it can be easy for us to drift into taking this for granted!
Every single congregation is unique, including Grace Church. We are a unique group of people among whom God is doing something unique. As pastor, my role is simply to try to pay attention to what God is doing among us, and then help everyone else pay attention as well. One of the ways I want to attempt to do that is through a brief writing once a month from me to you, something we’ll call, in tribute to Bonhoeffer, Life Together. In these monthly writings, I will use a variety of prayers, observations, interactions with Scripture, attempts to answer hard questions, recommended books and articles, seasonal emphases, etc. to try to point out how the Lord is at work in our midst in a variety of ways.
Bonhoeffer, who lived in Germany when Hitler’s influence eventually corrupted the church, established an underground seminary emphasizing all aspects of life together, from singing and studying to playing and sharing stories. His goal was to continue raising up individuals who lived with the conviction that Christ is the foundation of any true church. And this is our goal as well, that as we learn to sing and study and play and share stories together, we will never take one another for granted, thus learning to be the body of Christ, his church, in the unique time and place in which he has set us.
Ben
Monthly Book Recommendation
Because these monthly articles have been inspired by Dietrich Bonhoeffer’s Life Together, this is my first recommended book. This book has helped me more than any other to understand how much I need others in order to grow in my personal relationship with Christ. It’s short (only about 100 pages) but is one of the best ever on the importance of Christian community.
Life Together
by Dietrich Bonhoeffer