Isolation stinks

One of the proverbs of Solomon goes like this:

Plans fail for lack of counsel,
—but with many advisors they succeed.

I wrote in the margin of my Bible how this is an example of the blessing of being in community with others.  “Two heads are better than one” is nearly a quote from the Bible!

Reading this proverb clicked with a couple sections of a book I just finished reading – The Me I Want To Be by John Ortberg…

…When I am with people who know me deeply and accept me fully, their acceptance touches my brokenness as a doctor touches the injured place on a patient’s body.  Their very touch begins to heal, and through the mystery of the fellowship of acceptance, God’s Spirit flows.

Henri Nouwen wrote, “When we honestly ask ourselves which person in our lives means the most to us, we often find that it is those who, instead of giving advice, solutions, or cures, have chosen rather to share our pain and touch our wounds with a warm and tender hand.”
(p. 198)

In a chapter about dealing with temptations, Ortberg writes…

Nothing makes temptation more powerful than isolation…  The single most common way out [of a tempting situation] involves talking about our temptations with another person. (p. 138)

And near the end of the book, he sums up with…

…Facing challenges in community gives life
and isolation destroys it. (p. 251)

I thank God for a wife and for friends who surround me, who bring wholeness to my life, who encourage me and hold me accountable, who help me experience life as God desires for me.