“This connection has also been called ‘reciprocal rootedness.’ We were created to draw life and nourishment from one another. . . . But the most important reason to pursue deep community is not for the physical or emotional benefits it brings, great as those may be. Community is the place God made us for. Community is the place where God meets us.”- John Ortberg
“Whoever cannot stand being in community should beware of being alone.”- Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Life Together
As John Ortberg moves on in Chapter 1 of Everybody’s Normal . . . he observes that we try to hide the fact that we’re not normal. Because we know in our hearts that, like sheep, we all go astray. Consequently, we pretend to be healthier and kinder than we really are. As a result, we engage in what Pastor Ortberg refers to as depravity management.
In addition, when someone’s ‘as-is’ tag becomes public knowledge, John notes, we generally respond with disbelief. As if we find ourselves incapable of such behavior. Yet, from a spiritual perspective, our doubts nudge us. Our doubts try to tell us something important. As Neil Plantinga writes in Engaging God’s World:
“In a biblical view of the world, sin is a familiar, even predictable part of life, but it is not normal. And the fact that ‘everybody does it’ doesn’t make it normal.”
In conclusion, John counsels, sin and hiding began in the Garden of Eden. And even though some people excel at hiding, the ‘weirdness’ remains. If you get close enough to someone, john stresses, you’ll see it.
However, the fiercest longing of the soul centers on our yearning to attach and connect. God wired us this way. Above all, as frustrating as people can be, John quips, is hard to find a good substitute.
As Dallas Willard wrote in The Renovation of the Heart:
“The natural condition of life for human beings is reciprocal rootedness in others.”
Or, as a waitress in the South once phrased it to a friend of John’s, grits don’t come by themselves. You never order one grit.
Today’s question: What Bible verses spark reciprocal rootedness for you? Please share.
Tomorrow’s blog: “Particularly prickly porcupines”