To Know and To Be Known

One of the strongest of human needs is the need for community.  We want to know others and we want to be known.  Patrick Lafferty in his blog post from Park Cities Presbyterian Church says it this way, "There's a song by Don Shaffer about two lovers staring contemplatively at the sunset on a warm afternoon at the beach.  Breaking the silence, the girl asks her boyfriend if he ever has a deep desire to be free of all that constrains, to escape the mundane and the trivial.  He pauses and replies,

Kelly, I don’t think
I’ve ever wanted as much
To be free as I’ve longed to be known
And of the things that I hate
When I look at my life
The worst is my being alone

Lafferty observes, "The boyfriend's unpremeditated comment has the unintended consequence of awakening her to the same conclusion. She, too—despite all her desires to be unencumbered by the tedium and travail of this life—longs to be known."

Think about it.  We join the Scouts, pledge to sororities, play on teams, form clubs, all for a variety of reasons, but one of the most compelling is the need to know and to be known.  We don't want to be alone.  It is not healthy to be alone.  In the early hours of the sixth day of creation God looked and saw what he had made and said, "It is not good for man to be alone."  Some times we don't want to take the time to build community.  Some times we live in denial of the need, but we are never better for it.

Everyone knows relationships are not easy.  But anyone who has invested deeply in community has learned it is worth the effort.  Of all the groups you could join to fix your aloneness none have more potential than a LifeGroup.  In LifeGroups you have the opportunity to fix your aloneness while growing in your relationship with God and others.  In a healthy community we are encouraged, shaped, and sharpened by one another to live life as God intended it. I'm convinced we will never experience life as God intended us to know it apart from living it in community with other believers.  

It is worth your effort to find a LifeGroup and develop your community.  Right now before you log off the internet click on the link at the right and join a LifeGroup.  Find a LifeGroup

Craig