Day 8 – Buddy System

“The way God designed our bodies is a model for understanding our lives together as a church: every part dependent on every other part, the parts we mention and the parts we don't, the parts we see and the parts we don't. If one part hurts, every other part is involved in the hurt, and in the healing. If one part flourishes, every other part enters into the exuberance. You are Christ's body—that's who you are! You must never forget this.”
1 Corinthians 12:25-27

In late April of 2003 a young adrenaline junkie named Aaron Ralston went out for a weekend rock-climbing trip. On Saturday, Aaron found himself climbing in a narrow canyon when the 800-pound rock he was clinging to shifted and Aaron slipped. The heavy boulder rolled over and pinned his arm to the canyon wall. Aaron remained there for 5 days, waiting for someone to rescue him.

No one came.

By Tuesday, he ran out of water. On Thursday morning, he decided that his survival required drastic action. Using the dull knife from his multi-tool, Aaron applied a tourniquet to his now lifeless arm, amputated his arm just below the elbow, and then administered first aid. As if that wasn’t enough for one day, he then rigged anchors, fixed a rope and rappelled 75 feet to the canyon floor. But wait…the story is not over. Aaron then hiked downstream and was spotted about 3 p.m. by a Utah Public Safety Helicopter. The search for Ralston had begun the same morning, after authorities were notified he was four days overdue reporting for work.

Imagine what went through Aaron’s mind as he made that fateful decision to cut off his own arm. Life and death hanging on this one decision. It was courageous. It was daring. It was extreme discipline at its best.

And it was completely unnecessary.

You see Aaron broke the most important rule in mountain climbing: Never Climb Alone. If he had gone with someone else or at least told someone where he was going, he would still have his arm today.

It seems like I meet people every week that have a story similar to Aaron’s. At some point and time in the past, they have made a commitment to follow Jesus and have spent the majority of their Christian lives climbing alone. Every time they find themselves between a rock and a hard place, they try to figure out what courageous, daring, disciplined decision they need to make in order to pull themselves out of it. They decide to read the Bible more, go to Church more, serve more, do more! And the majority of them are wounded, battered and bloody with what feels like a part of their soul amputated.

Do you ever feel like that? Do you ever feel like you’re alone in this thing called faith, trying your best, but just not able to make it?

There’s good news. You were never meant to climb alone.

Everywhere you look in the Scriptures, you find this concept called community where men and women are identified, not as individuals, but as a people. The people of God. The people of Egypt. The people of Ninevah. And while the community is filled with individuals, each person in the community recognized that they were a part of something larger than themselves.

In the New Testament, through faith in Jesus Christ, the idea of community expands beyond nationality and includes both Jews and Greeks, men and women, kings and paupers, somebodys and nobodys, red carpets and back alleyways – people from a myriad of backgrounds calling on the name of Jesus to set them free from the boulders that pin them to their destinies of solitude. Take joy! You were never meant to climb alone! You are a part of a people; a community; a body!

You are not alone!

Over the next several days, we’ll spend more time on this idea. For now, allow our conversation and these prompters to spur you in community with God through prayer.

• Thank God that the burden of following Jesus alone has been lifted from your life.
• Thank God for Jesus who has brought you into His family and His body.
• Ask God to make you more aware of your need for community.
• Ask God to give you an increasing desire to connect with others in the Body of Christ.
• Ask God to help you to reach out to others and invite them into this community of faith.
• Spend a few moments and think through the people who have helped shape your faith. Thank God for them and ask Him to give you the courage to be that for someone else this week.