Let’s follow up on our thinking about “walls” with this from M. Scott Peck (found in The Different Drum),

Community requires the confession of brokenness. But how remarkable it is that in our culture brokenness must be “confessed.” We think of confession as an act that should be carried out in secret, in the darkness of the confessional, with the guarantee of professional priestly or psychiatric confidentiality. Yet the reality is that every human being is broken and vulnerable. How strange that we should ordinarily feel compelled to hide our wounds when we are all wounded!  Community requires the ability to expose our wounds and weaknesses to our fellow creatures. It also requires the ability to be affected by the wounds of others. But even more important is the love that arises among us when we share, both ways, our woundedness. With remorse, confession becomes a joy.

Do Peck’s words give any insight into how we find ways of moving beyond the walls we create?

When we “hide our wounds” are we building walls?  Does a need to appear “strong” contribute to our separateness from those around us?

But what about confession without the “ability to be affected by the wounds of others”?  Can confession, at times, only be a way to appear strong and yet maintain walls so we are unaffected by the wounds and hurts and pains of those around us?

Walls – Confession – Community

How do you see this relationship?  What gives us the desire and willingness to move closer to one another?