Life Together by Dietrich Bonhoeffer has become one of my
absolute favorite books. Throughout his book, Bonhoeffer explains that
Christian community is vital to the Christian. Here, we see that an individual
is not made to function alone and must be in fellowship with other believers in
order to truly experience God and the life that He has for them. Throughout our
study of the Appalachian Trail, I was intrigued by the notion of community and
communitas. There is absolutely no way that an individual could through hike
the AT without the help of other people. One thing I particularly loved about
this was the “trail magic” feature. In Bonhoeffer’s writing, he explains that
in community you cannot serve yourself, you must serve God and serve others.
Through this, there is an act of selflessness that must also occur. When
learning about “trail magic” and individuals giving up their resources and time
to serve other strangers, I couldn’t help but think of this point of
Bonhoeffer’s writing. It made me wonder, when individuals get off the trail and
are done, do they crave this community that we were made to live in? Do you
think that many hikers turn to Christian fellowship after they are done because
they have tasted the freedom in being loved and served by people with a common
goal?
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