Pursuit :: Splagchnon // Chris Holm

We thrive through relationships with others as we show up authentically, with kindness and honor. That is one of our core values, and this week we dug into why something we were built for can feel so hard.We started with Dietrich Bonhoeffer, who ran an underground seminary in Nazi Germany and later wrote about what he called the wish dream, the fantasy version of community we carry in our heads. He warned that if we love that fantasy more than the real, flawed people in front of us, we will end up destroying the very community we wanted.From there we walked through First John, a letter written into the wreckage of a church split. John keeps pointing back to one command, love one another, and traces contempt and grudges all the way back to Cain and Abel. Jesus does the same thing in Matthew 5, saying that anger and contempt live in the same family as murder.We looked closely at 1 John 3:17, where the Greek word for our gut, our internal organs, is splagchnon. John uses it to talk about where compassion actually lives, or gets shut off. He is saying love is not just a head belief, it has to move into the deepest part of us and then out into our hands and feet.We also leaned on C.S. Lewis, who said that protecting our heart from love does not keep it safe, it just locks it in a casket where it slowly hardens. And we talked honestly about the difference between forgiveness and enabling harm. You can release bitterness toward someone while still setting firm boundaries to protect yourself and your family.The hope underneath all of it is this: we are not called to love people in our own strength. We are already fully known and fully loved by God, and once that truth reaches our gut, love has somewhere to flow from.URF WEBSITE: ➤ http://www.urfellowship.comSOCIALS: ➤ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/urfellowship/➤ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/urfellowship