Loneliness. If you were to have a gut-level, honest conversation with your friends, you may be amazed at how often many of them feel isolated and alone. God’s design and desire is not that His people would have to “go it alone.” While many of us experience loneliness, it is not God’s plan!

Now that the winter is close to over, many of us are experiencing that annual mini-crisis on the roads—potholes! It’s almost impossible to go for a smooth ride these days without having one of our tires disappear into a foot-deep hole in the pavement! Let’s talk about the major “pothole” that keeps us from having an enjoyable ride into a God-designed community—independence.

Our U.S. culture, despite some of the more relational sub-cultures that make up our American landscape, steers us toward independence. Our culture has become more and more a compilation of isolated people who increasingly feel alone (Robert Putman, Bowling Alone).

God’s design, however, is most fully expressed in community, a more collective culture, not just a grouping of independent individuals (see 1 Corinthians 12:1-27).

Consider this: How do you see Western independence blocking the community that God wants us to experience as followers of Jesus?

It’s no surprise that our existence is supposed to be modeled after not only God’s desires, but also God Himself (see Genesis 1:26). Over the next few posts, we will have our eyes opened to God’s wonderful desires and design for His people—the community of God!