Fences
As I was out mowing the lawn today I got to thinking about fences. It seems to me that fences really only cause us trouble. On the one hand they keep our neighbors out. A sad state of affairs since one of the greatest things we are lacking in our society is community. We don't have it, and we don't know how to live with one another. We need to learn how to live with both the good and the bad. How do we work with that? We will never learn if we keep our neighbors fenced out.
Fences are a problem as well when trying maintain the yard. What a hassle to try to mow with them there. Isn't that the case with the fences we build between us and God? They keep other people out and it makes it even more difficult to maintain our lives because we have to keep working around the fences. Maybe it's about time we start tearing down some fences instead of building them.
Fences are a problem as well when trying maintain the yard. What a hassle to try to mow with them there. Isn't that the case with the fences we build between us and God? They keep other people out and it makes it even more difficult to maintain our lives because we have to keep working around the fences. Maybe it's about time we start tearing down some fences instead of building them.
posted by pb @ 1:57 PM
3 Comments:
At 2:42 PM,
kc said…
so why do you think we build fences with others and god? Is it for the same reasons? Are we scared, intimidated, selfish, hurt? If community is what we desperately want (which I would agree is true) then why do we do the very opposite, or rather something that hinders having it? Is it easier to build a fence than to build community? If we remove all the fences, what do we put in their place?
At 5:17 PM,
pb said…
Karen, you ask some wonderful questions. Your questions are ones that I struggle with regularly. Fear? Selfishness? Yes! I build for all of those and more. What would be there if we tore them down? I don't know. I dream of when I was a kid and we would play games in the neighborhood and we would run freely from yard to yard, completely care free and safe. Yet, it seems that I continue to build fences as a security blanket. There are times that I've dared to take one down and reach out, but then I find in my vulnerability I am quick to rebuild another. As you know I also tend to be fiercely independent so there is a part of me wants to think I can do it on my own. Oh, I know full well in my head that I need the help of God and others if I am going to be worth anything in life... still there is this inclination to attempt it solo, from behind the safety of my fences. I want to learn to live without fences, or at the very least with them pushed far, far back with lots of room to roam within relationships that reach intimate depths. That is my desire... not yet my reality. Thank you, Karen, for continuing to challenge my thoughts today.
At 6:47 PM,
kc said…
yeah, i would tend to agree. i ask myself those questions alot. it seems that most of the time for me i am just too afraid of getting hurt, i'm scared of what life without the fence may be like. it's kind of like that analogy about the campfire, with the fire being god and me being a coal, and i want to be close enough to be warmed by the fire, but not so close that i get burned, yet that is so contrary to the life god calls me to...he is an all consuming fire, and i am to be tested and refined by fire, so that i may be pure and holy...aye...so much easier said than done.
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