Q & A

Q: Is it possible to "grow thicker skin" and maintain a healthy amount of sensitivity?

A: ??? (Anyone?!)

Or maybe the bumps and bruises along the way are a part of the way of the cross - not to be avoided (though perhaps not to be sought after either) but rather accepted as an integral part of Christian discipleship. (It's just hard to take knocks from the devout person sitting next to me in the pew.) I have this gut feeling that this is only the beginning, and that these little blows can teach me to endure opposition without losing hope for the church or failing in love for my well-meaning brother or sister.

"'Roses and Lilies' of the Christian Life"

These excerpts from Life Together by Dietrich Bonhoeffer really resonate with me today. Affectionately dedicated to my roommates, old and new!

Between the death of Christ and the Last Day, it is only by a gracious anticipation of the last things that Christians are privileged to live in visible fellowship with other Christians. ...

The physical presence of other Christians is a source of incomparable joy and strength to the believer. ...

The believer feels no shame, as though he were still living too much in the flesh, when he yearns for the physical presence of other Christians. Man was created a body, and the Son of Man appeared on earth in the body, he was raised in the body, in the sacrament the believer receives the Lord Christ in the body, and the resurrection of the dead will bring about the perfected fellowship of God's spiritual-physical creatures. The believer therefore lauds the Creator, the Redeemer, God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, for the bodily presence of a brother. The prisoner, the sick person, the Christian in exile sees in the companionship of a fellow Christian a physical sign of the gracious presence of the triune God. Visitor and visited in loneliness recognize in each other the Christ who is present in the body; they receive and meet each other as one meets the Lord, in reverence, humility, and joy. They receive each other's benedictions as the benediction of the Lord Jesus Christ. But if there is so much blessing and joy even in a single encounter of brother with brother, how inexhaustible are the riches that open up for those who by God's will are privileged to live in the daily fellowship of life with other Christians!

It is true, of course, that what is an unspeakable gift of God for the lonely individual is easily disregarded and trodden under foot by those who have the gift every day. It is easily forgotten that the fellowship of Christian brethren is a gift of grace, a gift of the Kingdom of God that any day may be taken from us, that the time that still separates us from utter loneliness may be brief indeed. Therefore, let him who until now has had the privilege of living a common Christian life with other Christians praise God's grace from the bottom of his heart. Let him thank God on his knees and declare: It is grace, nothing but grace, that we are allowed to live in Christian community.