Throwback Thursday #4: On the Differences that Divide Us

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There are times in cross-cultural work–in those nuanced, complicated relationships–that the differences dividing us seem simply too overwhelming. How can we possibly connect when we can’t even agree on that?

Martyr Dietrich Bonhoeffer (1906-1945) has a lot to say about Christian community–and the obstacles we surpass. He notes,

“He is our peace,” says Paul of Jesus Christ (Eph. 2:14). Without Christ there is discord between God and man and between man and man.

….without Christ we also could not know our brother, nor could we come to him. The way is blocked by our own ego.

….What God did to us, we then owed to others. The more we received, the more we were able to give; ad the more meager our brotherly love, the less were we living by God’s mercy and love. The God himself taught us to meet one another as God has met us in Christ.

…..Christian brotherhood is not an ideal which we must realize; it is rather a reality created by God in Christ in which we may participate.

–Life Together, 1938

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Go. Serve. Love

After seven years on staff with Cru, Janel and her husband packed up their family of six to--yup, Go. Serve. Love in Uganda with Engineering Ministries International (EMI). EMI focuses on poverty relief and development, providing structural design and construction management for Christian organizations in the developing world. After 5.5 years there in East Africa, Janel and her family recently schlepped back to the U.S., where they keep working on behalf of the poor. She writes and loves on her family from Colorado. You can find more of her ideas for practical spirituality and loving each other at AGenerousGrace.com.