Life Together

Our men's study group (which meets at the ungodly hour of 6:15 a.m. at the local greasy spoon) is in the process of studying through *Life Together* by Bonhoeffer. I was struck by a section of the reading for today:

Only that fellowship which faces such disillusionment, with all its unhappy and ugly aspects, begins to be what what it should be in God's sight, begins to grasp in faith the promise given to it. The sooner this shock of disillusionment comes to an individual and to a community the better for both....God hates visionary dreaming; it makes the dreamer proud and pretentious. The man who fashions a visionary ideal of community demands that it be realized by God, by others, and by himself. He enters the community of Christians with his demands, sets up his own law, and judges the brethren and God Himself accordingly. He stands adamant, a living reproach to all others in the circle of brethren. He acts as if he is the creator of the Christian community, as if his dream binds men together. When things do not go his way, he calls the effort a failure. When his idea picture is destroyed, he sees the community going to smash. So he becomes, first an accuser of his brethren, then an accuser of God, and finally the despairing accuser of himself. (pp. 27,28)