Don't stay stuck in the bear trap

Living in community is not as easy as it seems sometimes. We live in a world that pushes us to be self-sufficient, self-reliant, and self-supporting. Learning to rely on others seems at times like failure, but it shouldn't be. Why hog all the responsibility to one person? Like they're untouchable or something? That's what being the BODY of Christ is, yes/no? PRAYING for eachother, SPENDING TIME with eachother, ENCOURAGING eachother, keeping eachother ACCOUNTABLE...that one gets touchy at times, but it's the only way to keep growing closer, because it's bringing on a new level of closeness and intimacy that is often uncomfortable. But then I think about the story of a bear caught in a bear trap....

A man walks by and notices a bear caught in this huge claw-like trap, and it's tearing into the bears' flesh. The bear is trying desparately to pull and struggle to get free, but is simply making the trap close tighter and tear away more flesh. Pretty soon the bear gives up the struggle because it's easier and much less painful to deal with the steady pain of something wrong rather than making it worse. The man looks at the defeated beast and cries out for it. He knows the only way to release the trap is for the animal to stand on it with all it's weight...the trouble is, will the bear trust the man, or wait defeated for the hunter to finish the job?

Sometimes we get caught up in our own junk, and get tired of struggling a seemingly useless battle, and we give up. Then a Friend comes along, let's call him Jesus, with a way to get free, but we don't want to listen to it, because we're too busy with being hurt and wounded to hear. So He brings along another friend, this time someone more like us, who has been through similar pain, but doesn't seem to be as troubled any more. They show us their scars, proof of their pain, but also proof of their healing, and they tell us about this man Jesus who helped them get free, too. So now we see that healing is possible, and we know the One who will help us get there, but do we go to Him? What do you do?