Bonhoeffer on Idealism and Community

For those  of us who tend to be a bit impatient with the Church and want the Kingdom of God to appear HERE AND  NOW   in our own local church, for the idealists who get so exasperated with the pragmatists among us, here are some words of wisdom from Dietrich Bonhoeffer from his book, Life Together. Words that I needed to hear.

“The man who fashions a visionary ideal of community demands that it be realized by God,  by others, and by himself. He enters the community of Christians with his demands, sets up his own law, and judges the brethren and God Himself accordingly….He acts as if he is the creator of the Christian community, as if his dream binds men and women together. When things do not go his way, he calls the effort a failure….So he becomes, first an accuser of his brothers and sisters, then an accuser of God, and finally the despairing accuser of himself.”