Thursday Morning with the Three Amigos

Every Thursday morning I meet with a couple of guys at 6:00 AM. It's like the three Amigos. We get saddled up for this great adventure into the wild wild east. It has be east because of our Pennsylvania locale and so off we go on about a three hour journey. Nothing is really planned or organized but their is a strong desire to be together and get our cards out on the table so to speak. This kind of inter-action can become volatile at times but the gathering is necessary for all of us. These relationships are a kind of a life line that we need because in and of ourselves we feel somewhat incomplete without the other.

I remember in the days of my youth how easy it was to spend time with friends. We had all the time in the world it seemed. Those days are long gone and have been replaced by many of the responsibilities that come with living in our American culture. I remember a phrase that surfaced a decade ago that said, " time is the currency of the 90's". Everybody wished they had more of it. Time to do what? That is the question.

It has become very obvious to me that God created us to have community. Community is not church attendance. Community is not a Bible study or a seminar.

Community is a relatively unknown commodity for many. The church as we know it has lost much of its identity because the individual believers don't know who they really are. Our own identity in the Body of Christ is never really developed on our own. Our identity is incomplete without others. Our God made us that way. All the parts work together for the good of the whole.

The word "community" has old roots, going back to the Indo-European base mei, meaning "change" or "exchange." Apparently this joined with another root, kom, meaning "with," to produce an Indo-European word kommein: shared by all.

Meetings have replaced community. We are often left wanting and unfulfilled and even bored. We don't need more meetings. We need a chance to have real communion with one another. The three amigos can do that. Three hundred amigos in one place at the same time would surely struggle to have real community. Think about your life. Is there any real community taking place? I know that I can fill my time very easily and yet still have no real community. One of my biggest fears has been that I would become so busy with life's responsibilities that I would grow old without any friends.

I have the three amigos right now and sometimes we behave like the three stooges but that's okay. We are in community.

Jesus, lead us into real community. Bring those of us together who resist. Free us from ourselves and reveal to us the beauty of your original purpose for our lives.