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"I have come to believe that by and large the human family all has the same secrets, which are both very telling in the sense that they tell what is perhaps the central paradox of our condition - that what we hunger for perhaps more than anything else is to be known in our full humanness, and yet that is often just what we also fear more than anything else." - Frederick Buechner


Community is something we long for as human beings. God created us for community--ultimately our longing for community is communion with God Himself, which we are able to have here on earth in our relationship with Christ, but which we will not fully realize until Heaven. Our souls long for heaven; they ache for eternity. We want to be known, fully--truly. And in being known we desire acceptance and love for who we really are--not who we pretend to be or the parts we let other people see.

And yet, as Buechner so aptly points out, we are fearful of being known. Of exposing our secrets. Of letting people know that we're not perfect, that we struggle with sin, that we mess up, that life's not always pretty or easy or fun.

Lord--strip me of my fear of man that I may be truly known, because it is only in being known that I can be changed and conformed into Your image. Change me Lord. Give me a heart like Yours to love others, hands like Yours to wash others feet, words like Yours to speak truth in love, feet like Yours to go to the nations, obedience like Yours to obey the Word, love like Yours to live sacrificially for others, and boldness like Yours that I might preach the Good News to those who don't know You. Help me to be known, that I might be changed into Your image. Amen.