January 31

Read Hebrews 10:19-25

Pray: Almighty God, show me my people. Help me to encourage them to be more like you. Allow me to hear their guidance as well. Help us to bring about your Kingdom. Amen.

Hear:

We live in an individualistic community. We don’t want to show our messes to the world. Some circles don’t want to share that we go to therapy, argue with our spouses/significant others/kids, or any other myriad of completely normal things.

We feel that we must hide these things so that we can stay “in,” and not be ostracized. The radical teaching of the Christian faith is that we are made to share our joys AND our failures with a community.

This radical teaching frees us from secrecy and releases us towards becoming more like Jesus. If we don’t air out our laundry, the flawed analogy could go, it gets moldy in the machine. With a community of trust built up around us, we can only then become more like Christ.

Respond:

Where will you find your people? How will you be brave with those people?

Meditation:

I am not alone.