As I think about the young man I met in Kazakhstan so many years ago, your depth of thinking and sensitivity to spiritual matters is exactly who God created you to be. Thank you for sharing this new insight in to the broken body of Christ.
Very insightful. Jesus has a funny way of taking those lopsided things and making them holy... bread and people.
I think what you said about technology is also very poignant. As a culture, we've put down the idea of needing someone else. Yet, everyone always tells us "If you ever need anything, let me know." Yet, through out excessive individualism and humanism, we subconsciously avoid every allowing ourselves to need someone else until we are at a breaking point.
At our core, humans are relational beings. Not individuals. Sure, we are distinct persons, but to be a person is to have a relationship with another person. Personhood is defined by relationships. Look no further than the Trinity: 3 persons united as 1 through relationship and love. So too are we, the Body of Christ in the world, called to serve as persons united as one through relationship and love. We all are part of the Body of Christ, but we can't be if we're individuals. No, we're persons.
Excessive technology (and specifically, social media) promotes individuality. Our self-image becomes so dependent on numbers that we achieve by posting on social media (likes, shares, comments, etc.). We base our self perception on the perception of others. Yet, this is a twisted view of how we are to interact with one another, and I would argue that we're not interacting with one another by doing things like liking, commenting, or sharing. Because by posting and essentially asking for approval, our self-worth is dependent on whether we achieve that approval that we're asking for. However, we're not called to get approval from others as individuals. No, we're called to be persons. And as I said, persons are relational. As persons, we don't have approve one another. We have to be together. We must look past each others faults and perfections and simply be with them.
We are not individuals, but persons. And the only person we need approval from (in the way we seek it) is God. Individual gain is hollow, but personal gain is fulfilling. When we help other persons, we help ourselves. We must sacrifice our individuality and become persons.
Thank you for you well crafted thoughts about a topic that means a lot to me. Unfortunately, for many churches, communion is an add on or something that is observed frequently. While the denomination that I grew up in had lots of faults like most other churches, we observed the Lord's Supper each and every Sunday. It never got old, stale or tiresome to me.
As I think about the young man I met in Kazakhstan so many years ago, your depth of thinking and sensitivity to spiritual matters is exactly who God created you to be. Thank you for sharing this new insight in to the broken body of Christ.
Very insightful. Jesus has a funny way of taking those lopsided things and making them holy... bread and people.
I think what you said about technology is also very poignant. As a culture, we've put down the idea of needing someone else. Yet, everyone always tells us "If you ever need anything, let me know." Yet, through out excessive individualism and humanism, we subconsciously avoid every allowing ourselves to need someone else until we are at a breaking point.
At our core, humans are relational beings. Not individuals. Sure, we are distinct persons, but to be a person is to have a relationship with another person. Personhood is defined by relationships. Look no further than the Trinity: 3 persons united as 1 through relationship and love. So too are we, the Body of Christ in the world, called to serve as persons united as one through relationship and love. We all are part of the Body of Christ, but we can't be if we're individuals. No, we're persons.
Excessive technology (and specifically, social media) promotes individuality. Our self-image becomes so dependent on numbers that we achieve by posting on social media (likes, shares, comments, etc.). We base our self perception on the perception of others. Yet, this is a twisted view of how we are to interact with one another, and I would argue that we're not interacting with one another by doing things like liking, commenting, or sharing. Because by posting and essentially asking for approval, our self-worth is dependent on whether we achieve that approval that we're asking for. However, we're not called to get approval from others as individuals. No, we're called to be persons. And as I said, persons are relational. As persons, we don't have approve one another. We have to be together. We must look past each others faults and perfections and simply be with them.
We are not individuals, but persons. And the only person we need approval from (in the way we seek it) is God. Individual gain is hollow, but personal gain is fulfilling. When we help other persons, we help ourselves. We must sacrifice our individuality and become persons.
Thank you for you well crafted thoughts about a topic that means a lot to me. Unfortunately, for many churches, communion is an add on or something that is observed frequently. While the denomination that I grew up in had lots of faults like most other churches, we observed the Lord's Supper each and every Sunday. It never got old, stale or tiresome to me.