Bonhoeffer on Suffering

Dietrich Bonhoeffer, in After Ten Years.

"It is infinitely easier to suffer in obedience to a human command than to accept suffering as free, responsible men. It is infinitely easier to suffer with others than to suffer alone. It is infinitely easier to suffer as public heroes than to suffer apart and in ignominy (disgrace). It is infinitely easier to suffer physical death than to endure spiritual suffering. Christ suffered as a free man alone, apart and in ignominy, in body and in spirit, and since that day many Christians have suffered with him."

—Letters and Papers from Prison, ed. Eberhard Bethge (SCM Press, 1953), p. 24.

Community 1.0

At my current age, I desire community in the way of fellowship, companionship, friendship or you could say, waking-in-life-together relationship. This is my desire, and unfortunately, this life stage does not afford such possibilities. It is in a word--impossible. As I seek how to solve this difficulty (finding a community), I have started to ask questions about this desire. Here I'll ask, "Where did this desire come from?" And I will attempt to answer it in four parts. This post is the first of four.

From Junior High. It began in junior high school, when I weighed a mere 130 lbs and was afraid to dribble in basketball games. A root of desire for communal relationship--within a group of like-minded kids who accepted me--formed unknown within me during this time. The longing for there to be more than just me settled deep within my psyche. And although it would hide itself until college, it was always present. To experience life with a group of people who liked me and valued the same values. Individuals acting in the same stage of life. We would attend class together, listening and learning together. We would have the same problems together. We would go through life together. Ultimately, I wanted to experience these habit-forming defining moments with other people my age (again without knowing it). How did this come about in Jr. High? It was simple. We mimicked our brothers and sisters. Older than us, they would hang out together every Friday night. Sometimes they would watch movies, but other times, they would run down the local cemetery to freak themselves out. Looking to them, my junior high lot sought to do what our role-models did. We attempted and succeeded to follow their steps. We would have ten or so Jr. High students together, almost every Friday night. It had a lasting impact on me. In fact, I can draw three clear lessons from these days.

1. Meaning found in experience grows exponential, when shared with people. Something about a group or community hooked me, and I think, I will forever want to share experiences with other people. 
2. Real community has a unified focus, vision or goal. Although unintentional, my group had a single focus--to be like our siblings. It brought us together and formed our thinking, and we acted in accordance with this goal.
3. Deep relationships develop within community. 

I must park on the third lesson. I liked a girl in the group, but I never really talked to her. So this story is not about her at all; it is about her best friend. You remember how in Jr. High a boy would find out inside information from the girl's best friend. Well, I did this shamelessly. And I am thankful for it, because out of this immature tactic, I gained a dear friend. I always had reason to talk to her, and the next thing I know, I am much closer to the friend than I was to the girl I supposedly was going out with. She became my dearest friend in Jr. High and high school. Community fosters this opportunity to find what I would call a lasting friendship.

More to Come...

Are you following Jesus?

HT: Paul Nesta

To A Better World

"They ought to see that it is the way of Providence to test by such afflictions men of virtuous and exemplary life, and to call them, once tried, to a better world, or to keep them for a while on earth for the accomplishment of other purposes."

- Augustine, City of God, 41.