My mother-in-law recently told me about how one of the stars of HGTV’s Flip or Flop was told about a lump on his thyroid by a viewer that ultimately probably saved his life. As the story goes, a nurse from Texas was watching a marathon and noticed the lump on his throat and risked being ignored or even humiliated.
What does this have to do with accountability? One of the great thinkers of the 20th century, Dietrich Bonhoeffer wrote that we hurt others and hurt community when we don’t address the cancers in other people’s lives. Bonhoeffer famously died in a Nazi Concentration camp after failing to rid Germany of their cancer (Hitler).
We’ve become a non-confrontational society on the micro level. We don’t mind sitting during an anthem or holding a press conference to vaguely define societal ills, but we do mind looking someone in the face and respectfully telling them that we’ve noticed something in their lives that is dangerous for them.
Woah woah woah… what happened to dealing with your own stuff first? Well, true community means being open to hearing your flaws and having the courage to help others through theirs.
Gentleness and Respect.
So may we be willing to keep each other accountable, and may we grow our community stronger every day.
markholdenwrites 