MIKE, WILLIE, AND WHY IT MATTERS...
A word about two very special friends of mine, Mike & Willie, and how they have helped crystallize for me why God has given us the church as the primary way for Christians to relate to God, one another, and the world around us.
As we prepare to go into our summer months, I want to let you know how truly blessed we are when we choose to be actively involved in the life of our church and it's ministry. While it may not be obvious each and every week, through our deliberate and consistent efforts to invest our time into one another we are building what can be truly life-changing and life-long relationships.
Mike and I have been friends since June of 1986, shortly after my family moved from Lake Charles to the northern suburbs of Pittsburgh. We came from very different backgrounds, but somehow became fast friends because of our time spent at St. Paul's UMC in Allison Park, PA. There's too many stories to tell here (and some I pray you never, ever know) but sufficeth to say that if not for the ministry of the church, and our parents' commitments to having us involved in that ministry in all areas (worship, Sunday School, youth group, church work days, various mission trips, church dinner theatre, etc.), there's no way we find ourselves still close even though we have not lived in the same area since June of 1993. When we met last Tuesday for breakfast during my all-too-brief trip to see my parents, we laughed for over an hour, and many of our stories revolved around our time at church. Yes, we both have lots of challenges that we are facing in our personal and professional lives, but you'd better believe that we are both better off because it was important to our families that we immerse ourselves in this great gift of God, the church, as we share what is for us a life-long journey that knows no earthly bounds.
Willie, on the other hand, was someone I met in during his freshman year at the Harvard of the South (I mean, Louisiana Tech) when we were both involved in the Wesley Foundation at Louisiana Tech. Much like Mike and myself, Willie and I became fast friends. Through our time together, we discovered that we were raised in much the same way, with faithful parents who made participation in the life of the church part of our family and individual identities. Because we were so rooted in the body of Christ by the time we hit college, it was quite natural to immerse ourselves in a Christian community on campus. Through a very serendipitous series of events, he wound up having to be in Baton Rouge on Tuesday of this week for business, so he and I shared a long supper Monday night in Gonzales. As was the case with Mike, we talked a lot about the highs, lows, and pressures we are facing in our lives now, but also celebrated the time we shared together, even though we have not lived close to each other in almost 15 years.
Breakfast with Mike and supper with Willie came at very needed times in my life and theirs, for we all have various challenges with which we are dealing on personal and professional levels. Through God's gift of the church, and our families' commitments to making the community of faith a central part of our identity, all three of us were able to 'come up for air' for a brief respite, strengthening and encouraging one another along life's journey.
Looking out over what will soon no longer be our playground (a new one is being installed soon) this afternoon, I saw children from our church basking in the joy of being at play, and I thought of Mike, Willie, and all the other great friends that God has brought into my life, and I am overwhelmed. In addition to church, I was deeply involved in activities at school and at college, but the strongest and most long-lasting were those that I made because of life in the church.
I hope and pray the parents of those children on the playground make it a point to be so deeply involved in the life of the church that they will draw upon the relationships that they are making now on our playground to be sustained throughout their lives.
May we, as we profess to whenever we celebrate the sacrament of baptism, "...[S]o order our lives after the example of Christ, that we will surround [this person] with a community..."
Grace and Peace, Lamar