I had a great day celebrating my 67th birthday. Ann and I are visiting with Scott and Allison in Atoka, Tennessee. Scott and I are building a workbench for his garage. My day started with a nice run and then Scott and I worked on his project until after 5:00pm. During the day I received several calls from friends and family. Nice.
This evening I was treated to dinner at a very nice restaurant in Covington by Scott and Allison.
NOW I am as old as Ann.
I thought this excerpt from Internet Monk’s post today worthy of some thought.
Scot Mcknight astutely points out that we have a lot of people taking the church very seriously these days, but ironically, many of them can’t find the church they need. Not because of a lack of entertaining programs and preaching, but because they are looking for a community where they can faithfully struggle alongside other strugglers in the discipleship journey.
Many of us feel that absence. We are parts of community, but we are afraid to confess our struggles. We’ve seen how others are written off, and we don’t want to risk the same kind of rejection. We want to be the kinds of persons who can pray for others as fellow pilgrims. We want to move past being the judges of those who are simply like us: broken people who need a hand.
Scripture has the Jesus shaped community in mind. We find it too risky. We want Christians to get it right the first time and keep on getting it right. When they fail, we don’t want the mess to intrude into our so-called “walk with Christ.” If we embrace a community where strugglers of every kind can find a home and help, we may be overwhelmed at what God is able to do.
Yesterday, since we are leaving for Memphis tomorrow, I was honored with an “almost birthday party”. Ann fixed a great meal and the Crockett’s helped us celebrate. I got gift cards to Lowe’s and two new books. I can’t wait to see what I get on my real birthday.