Accountability (Part 2)
How rugged individualism limits your potential
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Two people are better than one, because they can reap more benefit from their labor. For if they fall, one will help his companion up, but pity the person who falls down and has no one to help him up.
Ecclesiastes 4:9-10 (NET)
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One of the great American cultural phenomena is “rugged individualism.”
The idea that you can pull yourself up by your bootstraps and make things happen.
It’s not always wrong, per se, but it’s a far cry from the power of walking in community.
Especially when we struggle and fall.
Life is hard.
And going through life all on your own is unnecessarily difficult.
For one, we have God the Holy Spirit dwelling within us believers who promises to comfort us and guide us.
And we have the Body of Christ, that is, the Church. Literally told to bear one another’s burdens.
There’s the old saying that sums this up a bit well, too:
If you want to go fast, go alone. But if you want to go far, go together.
Why will traveling through life with others help us to go far?
Because we can bear one another’s burdens, we can pick each other up when we fall, our labor is multiplied when we work together.
Yes, there’s risk in opening our lives up to others: they might hurt us or betray us.
Sort of like how the people of God hurt and betrayed Jesus …
Meaning that (1) God understands and (2) despite that eventuality, He still decided it was worth the risk.
I’m grateful Jesus took that risk.
It spurs me on today.
— Ricky Ketchum
Copyright © 2025 by Ricky Ketchum. All rights reserved. Unauthorized duplication prohibited.
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