Removing grave clothes

I was reminded by a friend recently that the Christian life is to be lived in community. I have a tendency to withdraw sometimes. If I am struggling with something I will often disappear into my cocoon while I try to figure out what is wrong. Why?  Maybe because I feel vulnerable, maybe because I have an image I'm trying to protect. To be honest I don't always know why I retreat, but I know I retreat.

My friend reminded me of the story of Lazarus. Lazarus who had been dead for four days was called to life when Jesus cried with a loud voice, "Lazarus, come out." The man who had died came out, his hands and feet bound with linen strips, and his face wrapped with a cloth. Jesus said to them, 'Unbind him, and let him go.'" John 11: 38-44 Jesus who called Lazarus from death to life could also have released him from the grave clothes but he chose not to.

As I have meditated on how this looks in my life I have thought about Ephesians 4 where it talks about  unity in the Body of Christ. Just as Jesus called Lazarus to life He has called me to life. Just as Lazarus was alive but bound with grave clothes that needed to be removed by the hands of others so it is with me. The "calling"  I see in Ephesians is a calling of  community. I am called to walk in all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love. Other while operating in their Spiritual gifts speaking the truth in love remove from me the grave clothes that bind me. Then I in turn use the Spiritual gifts God has given me to help set them free.

Part of me wants to be independent, I simply want to be complete within myself. I don't want to need anybody. Jesus has called me from death to life isn't that enough? Yet what I see is not a call to independence but a call to interdependence. "Rather, speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ, from whom the whole body, joined and held together by every joint with which it is equipped , when each part is working properly, makes the body grow so that it build itself up in love." Ephesians 4:1-16

Lord Jesus You have called me from death to life. You have also called me to walk humbly before you in community. O Lord I choose to humbly submit to others out of reverence for You. Letting other people's hands remove my grave clothes. Willing also to help remove the grave clothes of those You've called to life.