I love the title of John Ortberg’s article – Breaking and Entering – True Christian community does whatever it takes to connect a friend with Jesus. One of the great stories in the Bible about community involves a paralyzed man and the friends who brought him to Jesus (Mark 2:1-8) Are you this type of friend? Do you have one? He writes… “Here is the truth about us: Everybody has a mat. Let the mat stand as a picture of human brokenness and imperfection. It is what is “not normal” about me. It is the little “as-is” tag that I most desire to hide. But it is only when we allow others to see our mat, when we give and receive help with each other, that healing becomes possible. Every effective Alcoholics Anonymous meeting is a Fellowship of the Mat. So are healthy families and churches.
Because everybody has a mat.
Maybe your mat is a raging temper, fear, or an inability to trust. Maybe it’s a need to be in control. Maybe your mat involves a terrible secret of some awful thing you did that you still feel guilty about. Maybe it is a crushing sense of failure, or inadequacy, or loneliness.
Community is made up of people with all their richness, but also with their weakness and poverty, of people who accept and forgive each other, who are vulnerable with each other. Humility and trust are more at the foundation of community than perfection.
If you want a deep friendship, you can’t always be the strong one. You will sometimes have to let somebody else carry your mat.”
John Ortberg is a teaching pastor at Willow Creek Church.
