Above all, love each other deeply, because love covers over a multitude of sins. 1 Peter 4:8 NIV
Very few dragon stories ever depict dragons in herds or flocks. There are no “dragon clubs.” Dragons are predatory and territorial creatures. Their very nature would have to change to live well in community. When Eustace awakens as a dragon surrounded by his treasure, at first he is elated. He is powerful and intimidating. Isolation feels good. He answers to no one. The treasure is all his. He is independent. He thinks he’s free. When we’re dragoned, isolation can masquerade as freedom. But isolation and loneliness create a special kind of bondage.
Dragons are proud, defensive, and self-protective. Their power and control make them feel superior, and those traits isolate them from the very community for which they were created. Independence is a myth. We need each other. Isolation is not a life strategy. It’s a sign of spiritual illness. Healthy people know they need others and are actively learning to love and be loved well.
Eustace couldn’t begin to be undragoned until he was able to drop his defenses and pride and honestly look at himself. He was alone long enough that he began to reconsider his life and the family and friends he had bitterly resented and rejected. He needed community and hadn’t realized it. He saw his friends and family in a different way after he was alone long enough.
Isolation always eventually leads to suffering. In suffering we have an opportunity to see our situations and the people around us in a new way. Before Eustace became a dragon, he had an easy description and explanation for everyone and everything: Everyone else was difficult, everyone else was unreasonable, everyone else was beneath him, everyone else was wrong. Suffering in isolation cracked his barricade of self-delusion.
Pain is not automatically good, but it can be a great teacher. Many people are unmotivated to change until relationships decimate, pride isolates, success disappoints, control fails, or they finally simply grow tired of being themselves. Living as a lonely dragon becomes exhausting and unbearable. They were created for community, to share life with others.
- Painful self-awareness is often the first step to grace. Eustace begins changing when he finally sees himself truthfully. So do you and I. When we drop our defenses, our comparisons, our self-justifications and look at ourselves honestly. We can repent – not in shame but as a new start. The ability to say, “I am not who I thought I was” is the first step of transformation. It is agreeing with God so healing in His community can begin.