Part 4: Share My Life With Others
Part Four
SHARE MY LIFE WITH OTHERS
Robert Mulholland suggests that spiritual formation is about being transformed into the image of Christ “for the sake of others.” Keeping company with Jesus is not just a private spiritual act, it is the way we share the trinitarian life of God with others. We are meant to live in community in the same way God does. In the company of others we make our journey and learn to tell the truth about ourselves. Interacting with others we learn the vulnerability of giving and receiving love. The S disciplines connect us with this loving-one-another life of Christ’s body.
The body of Christ is not something we create. It already is. Paul says, “Because there is one loaf, we, who are many, are one body, for we all partake of the one loaf” (1 Corinthians 10:17). Sharing our lives with others is always a risk. Authenticity, interdependence and being known come with a cost. But the alternative to paying the cost of living a one-another life is to live cut off from God. By appropriately opening ourselves to each other in the presence of Christ we discover ways to “lay down our lives for our friends.” We learn how to become safe people who bring God’s welcoming embrace to others.
“The pace of life and our preoccupation with unimportant things take so much of our attention. The significant things, like taking time to develop friendship, to read and pray, . . . to listen to God—these all get sacrificed on the altar of good works and Christian busyness.” —Luci Shaw
Accountability Partner
DESIRE | to give a regular and honest account of my choices, priorities and temptations to a godly and wise companion who points me to Christ |
DEFINITION | Having an accountability partner means that I appropriately and reciprocally disclose struggles, failures and temptations to a godly friend who is committed to asking hard questions, willing to challenge, and given to encouragement and prayer. |
SCRIPTURE | “Therefore confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed.” (James 5:16) “Brothers, if someone is caught in a sin, you who are spiritual should restore him gently. But watch yourself, or you also may be tempted. Carry each other’s burdens, and in this way you will fulfill the law of Christ.” (Galatians 6:1-2) “But encourage one another daily, as long as it is called Today, so that none of you may be hardened by sin’s deceitfulness.” (Hebrews 3:13) |
PRACTICE INCLUDES |
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GOD-GIVEN FRUIT |
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