Remembering Christ Was Always In The Boat.
"Despair
is the natural destination of the isolated.
Any pain, loss or difficulty is materially magnified by the belief-true
or false- that one is alone in experiencing it…The value of a peer in the midst
of the unknown and terrifying is almost inestimable…The church silently bears
witness to this abyss with its scores of believers who struggle quietly with
shame, believing the lie that their repeated sins and failures are evidence of
some unnatural moral deficit, some singular defect that no one else can
understand, let alone help them to escape…Our discipleship is crippled by the
distillation of the spiritual life to a single dyadic relationship: “me” and “Jesus.” When this kind of exclusive pairing is marred
by sin, the believer is cast adrift at sea, bereft of any peer aid. Lost to the castaway is the invaluable gift
of the wisdom of more experienced, wiser Christians who have lived through and
learned from the very same struggles. What
struggling believers need is the companionship of these mature Christians, who
would provide words of encouragement, empathetic prayers, and practical advise
to bear them above “a bottomless dismay.”"
Martindale,
Root, Washington, The Soul of C.S. Lewis pg. 267
“Dear
brothers and sisters, if another believer is overcome by some sin, you who are
godly should gently and humbly help that person back into the right path…Share
each other’s burdens, and in this way obey the law of Christ.” Galatians 6:1-2
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