Book Review: Bound Together: How We are Tied to Others in Good and Bad Choices by Chris Brauns

Bound Together: How We are Tied to Others in Good and Bad Choices
by Chris Brauns

Blessed Be The Tie That Binds

We are not just isolated individuals. Instead, our lives are woven together with others. We have solidarity with other people---the choices one person makes affects the lives of others, for good and for bad.

Because much of the pain we endure in life is in the context of relationships, this truth often strikes us as unfair. Why should a child suffer because of the choices of his parents? And on a grander scale, why do we all suffer the curse of Adam's sin? Why should anyone be judged for someone else's sin?

In Bound Together: How We are Tied to Others in Good and Bad Choices, Chris Brauns unpacks the truth that we are bound to one another and to the whole of creation. He calls this, 'the principle of the rope.' Grasping this foundational principle sheds new light on marriage, the dynamics of family relationships, and the reason why everyone lives with the consequences of the sins that others commit. Brauns shows how the principle of the rope is both bad news and good news, revealing a depth to the message of the gospel that many of us have never seen before.

Every person on earth is unique. All are designed specifically by our Creator. However, all are not isolated from one another, no matter how much we think we are or how badly we wish we could be individualistic in all aspects of life.

Pastor/Author, Chris Brauns has provided a book that emphasizes the "principle of the rope." This principle holds to the implications that all choices affect everyone. The choice doesn't necessarily have to be made by for it affect your life.

1 Corinthians 15 is a diving board that Brauns uses as the foundation for the principle of the rope. The first rope, held by Adam was unraveled, by his sin and the unraveling has reached to and unraveled all people. However, the second rope, held by Christ has those who profess Him as Lord and Savior knotted together and bound in Him.

This book gets straight to the heart of the matter. In the first two chapters, Brauns clearly explains the unraveling of the rope and throughout the remainder of the text, he explains the knotting back together of the second rope, which cannot break. The implications are seen in numerous ways. For example, in the community and fellowship of the local Church, the family and marriage. We were created for fellowship with our Creator and with other created beings. Being bound together is for the glory of God and truly for our good.

When someone is lifted up by the power of a good and wise decision, we are lifted up as well because we are tied to the same rope as the one who made the beneficial decision. When one makes an unwise decision and the rope is let down, we experience some sort of ramification(s) from that ill decision. This is part of life and Brauns writes with grace to urge readers to help lift up the rope with decisions that will benefit us all as we are tied to the rope for the glory of God and each other's good.