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Key Bible Verse: How wonderful it is, how pleasant, when brothers live together in harmony! (Psalm 133:1). Bonus Reading: Philippians 1:30-2:4

We can't live without other people. A study of 7,000 people in Alameda, California, revealed that people with few close contacts tended to die sooner than those who saw their friends regularly—a finding that held up even after adjustments for smoking and poor health histories. We need others. But we can't live easily with other people. Herein lies much of the difficulty in being human.

Whereas most trees have a root structure that corresponds roughly in size and shape to the pattern of their branches, redwoods have extremely shallow roots. They are able to stay standing, even in severe storms, because their roots intertwine; the trees hold each other and create a secure foundation. This is a nice image of how we should support and strengthen one another.

But people are more complicated than redwoods. Sometimes the roots of others are too fragile or rotted to help us; sometimes our own roots are too short to reach those of the nearest tree. Sometimes other trees fall on top of us. We're caught in a paradox: we need other people to keep upright, but those very people make it difficult.

—Donald McCullough in The Consolations of Imperfection

My Response: What up or down side of interdependence am I experiencing just now?

Thought to Apply: Only as we join with others different from us who share a common commitment to Jesus, can we know the completeness of His body.—BOB SNYDER

Adapted from The Consolations of Imperfection (Brazos, 2004) by permission.

Copyright © 2005 by the author or Christianity Today International/Men of Integrity magazine. Click here for reprint information on Men of Integrity.

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Prayer for the Week

Give me the love it takes, Lord Jesus, to live in harmony with the people You died for.

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