“The person who loves their dream of community will destroy community (even if their intentions are ever so earnest),
but the person who loves those around them will
create community.”
~ Bonhoeffer

When community becomes agendized, even if a noble one, EVEN if a "spiritual" one, it has already become self-serving, and destined for failure. Sooner or later it WILL self destruct … implode (interesting distinction, probably only to me, but there's usually no EXplosion, going down in flames in a blaze of glory; rather it's a slow, smoldering burn, self consuming and leaving little but smoke and ashes in its wake…).

What I'm beginning to see, perhaps, is if the "pursuit of community" is the goal, it will remain elusive, almost in reach, but never quite grasped completely. If the pursuit is God, knowing Jesus as He knows me, the agenda is necessarily changed. It's no longer a self-serving pursuit of what I want or even "need".  Understanding the magnitude of God's love for His own, for me, causes the focus subtly to shift from any plans I might have to build a community, to just loving others.

And THEN community begins….

* * * * *

Crash and burn.

This morning I wrote a post, and depending on who read it, might have stepped on toes.  I wrote it quickly, contrasting two parenting styles based on observation among people I know.  I signed into Typepad, less than half an hour later had completed it (rare for me…), but when I clicked publish Typepad reverted to the sign in page.  

Infuriated, I decided to table "Two trains, different tracks" for now, wondering if maybe that was Divine intervention for a post I shouldn't make public.  Soooo, because I was rattled and my brain couldn't think clearly to write something else, I looked through Drafts…and found the above.  Why I never published it is beyond me.  I love it.  

But when I read it I hardly recognized its author!  Almost five years have passed since I wrote it.  So much has happened in that time, it's difficult to remember the younger woman who penned these thoughts.  

Has that ever happened to you?  Do you have dozens of half-written posts, brilliantly begun but not completed…now languishing in your draft vault?  

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