Together not alone

I will depart from my series of posts reflecting on Bonhoeffer’s book today as I departed Poatina for the day over to be with our team in Victoria for the day.

It was great to be back with the team that I led between 2005 and 2009 and hear a little bit of what has been happening.

We had a meeting we call the State Coordinating Group, where leaders from different Fusion centres get together to plan and lead the development of Fusion’s work in Victoria. I believe it had been two years since I was last at that meeting and it was helpful to see what was the same and what was different.

There was one moment in the meeting that I found quite instructive.

We were starting to talk about what were the major strategic areas that required focussing in the state and in some ways the discussion was getting a bit messy because everyone was seeing things from a different point of view.

It was a constructive discussion but there was just a hint of frustration as it seemed to be going in about ten different directions at once.

As I was sitting there and reflecting on what I was hearing it slowly dawned how important this multiple faceted conversation was.

Each person was bringing what they had to give, and in doing so they were helping stretch the views of the others. The eventual point we reached simply could not have been reached by one person sitting down and thinking hard.

I’m pretty sure that is what Paul is trying to get to with 1 Corinthians 12:

1 Corinthians 12:19-25 (MSG)
But I also want you to think about how this keeps your significance from getting blown up into self-importance. For no matter how significant you are, it is only because of what you are a part of. An enormous eye or a gigantic hand wouldn’t be a body, but a monster. What we have is one body with many parts, each its proper size and in its proper place. No part is important on its own. Can you imagine Eye telling Hand, “Get lost; I don’t need you”? Or, Head telling Foot, “You’re fired; your job has been phased out”? As a matter of fact, in practice it works the other way—the “lower” the part, the more basic, and therefore necessary. You can live without an eye, for instance, but not without a stomach. When it’s a part of your own body you are concerned with, it makes no difference whether the part is visible or clothed, higher or lower. You give it dignity and honor just as it is, without comparisons. If anything, you have more concern for the lower parts than the higher. If you had to choose, wouldn’t you prefer good digestion to full-bodied hair? [25] The way God designed our bodies is a model for understanding our lives together as a church: every part dependent on every other part, the parts we mention and the parts we don’t, the parts we see and the parts we don’t. If one part hurts, every other part is involved in the hurt, and in the healing. If one part flourishes, every other part enters into the exuberance.

I think I saw the truth of this passage in operation today, but I also saw in the moment of potential angst why Paul both needed to wrote this passage and then focus heavily on what it means to love in the next chapter.

It’s not easy to create space for people who think differently to you. It requires a lot of patience (interestingly the first quality of love Paul mentions in the next chapter) and a lot of intentional choice.

It is such hard work because the way they think isn’t natural for you. It doesn’t seem right or feel right, but if you can do the work to create the space, you might find it is right.

I saw today what happens when people don’t create space.. I don’t have to think too long to come up with a list of times that space wasn’t created and relationships suffered as a result.

I saw today again that I need to keep working on creating that space, that it will never be easy, and that the result of that space is healthy relationships and much more effective action than I can ever manage on my own.

We need each other, even if it’s not simple.