None of Us

I pray also for those who will believe in me through your message, that all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you. May they also be in us so that the world may believe that you have sent me. I have given them the glory that you gave me; that they may be one as we are one: I in them and you in me. Jn 17: 20-23


We gathered in that room as doctors who had worked together on an overseas mission for years. We met again to plan and pray. We knew each other, in part. Jessie spoke up as we shared, “I need for you to pray about a situation I have at home that may effect my involvement in the next mission. My oldest son has a drug problem. He was doing well and working; but recently he crashed and quit his job. We need to support him again as he tries to start over.”



There was a moment of silence in the room; then, one by one, each of the seven mission members shared his/her story: a child, or sister or brother or spouse who was hurting badly and needed committed time and resources.


None of us is whole.
I am confident if Jessie’s concern had been a personal failure or broken dream, the same dynamic would have occurred. Each person in that room could have related his or her own.

None of us is whole, alone.

But we are not alone. We have the Church and God is present.

Within the community of believers we share our hurts and flaws. The Body encourages and heals and places us back into God’s army with healing wounds that would have destroyed a man or woman alone.


And we have Christ in us, the Christ who uses our brokenness as a shepherd’s crook to draw us closer to him---and in doing so, molds us stronger than we ever were before our wounds.


None of us is whole, alone. But we are not alone.

Praise you, Lord. I am not alone.