Who Knows You?
Who really knows you? That question came to mind after reading a quote recently, people today are "acquainted with many people, but they are known by none". Who really knows you? Your dreams, your passions, your failures, your thoughts, your skeletons, your fears, your good & bad habits, your junk? Who knows what you are thinking about right now? Does anyone care? Would you share if someone would listen? Do you have at least one person you dialogue with on more than just a surface level: how are you today? how about the Longhorns? Did you see American Idol? What's up with all this rain?
I sure hope so.....ironically enough i find this topic of community interesting! According to a recent Gallup poll - "Americans are among the most lonely people in the world"...how could that be with all of our stuff and access to people? Yet, most of us come home and hide within the four walls of our dwelling place and turn on the tube and get lost for hours on end. Or better yet we text, im, and email our closest friends w/o ever seeing them face to face.
Without a doubt we were created for community, Matthew 22 and Genesis 2 affirm this. I wonder, are you truly living in community? Does someone know your story (your parents or your bride don't count....they have to know it!) Better yet - do you know someone else's story, their hurts, dreams, fears, successes?
What keeps you from living in community with others? Do you think living in community reflects the image of God? Who are you intentionally getting to know?
I sure hope so.....ironically enough i find this topic of community interesting! According to a recent Gallup poll - "Americans are among the most lonely people in the world"...how could that be with all of our stuff and access to people? Yet, most of us come home and hide within the four walls of our dwelling place and turn on the tube and get lost for hours on end. Or better yet we text, im, and email our closest friends w/o ever seeing them face to face.
Without a doubt we were created for community, Matthew 22 and Genesis 2 affirm this. I wonder, are you truly living in community? Does someone know your story (your parents or your bride don't count....they have to know it!) Better yet - do you know someone else's story, their hurts, dreams, fears, successes?
What keeps you from living in community with others? Do you think living in community reflects the image of God? Who are you intentionally getting to know?
posted by Brady & Christy Traywick at 10:25 PM
2 Comments:
What keeps us from truly knowing one another?
One word: T - I - M - E
Our perspective on time is that there is always less of it and that the rate-of-events-in-our-lives is always accelerating. Who has time to get to know anyone? By the time you get to know someone, POOF, they've moved! Or POOF, they're dead! Or POOF, you're handed divorce papers. In modern Christian circles, its POOF, "The Spirit has moved us into another ministry" or POOF, "This <insert-group-in-need> need our help; we're moving in January."
Living in community requires T-I-M-E which implicitly goes against the grain of everything that our modern American culture seems to dictate. Faster, more efficient, slimmer, cheaper --> Better. Maybe more with less isn't better. Maybe less with 'more' is closer to home.
Deep relationships--the type that really 'know you'--are certainly worth it. The question is, "How?" when intrinsically we all feel we have 'less' time?
More importantly, How do you inject such a philosophy into an existing community "living life" the way they only know how, in such a way that people get to really know each other? The type of know-ledge that empirically will take years to develop?
I was in a talk about this a few weeks ago, and actually kind of offended the person because I told her that I only let a few people know me (of which she wasn't one). I have my accountability partners, and several close friends, and many good friends but the many don't necessarily know the criteria you mentioned. And it's not because of a lack of time or caring on their parts, but because I don't like having lots of people know me like that. I enjoy my privacy, and don't feel comfortable with the idea of lots of people really knowing me. Not sure if that makes sense, so if it doesn't I'll try to explain more.
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