Life. Together.

My wife and I spent this past weekend in St. Louis visiting some old friends and a few old haunts. We hit downtown, the Arch, the new City Garden, Soulard and then finally McGurk’s for some live, authentic Irish music. There is just something about being among people and places that are familiar, where life has been shared together, in community that breeds, well……life.

We were able to spend time with our dear friends who had struggled for years to have a baby. I still remember the simultaneous joy and pain a couple of years ago when Susie and I discovered we were pregnant with our 4^th and imagining how to share this news without delivering a dagger to these friends whom we dearly love. Well, they delivered their first born just a few weeks ago and as we entered their home, I witnessed the tears flow as Susie was overcome with emotion and joy.

We were able to eat dinner with other friends one of whom we had known for many years previously in Birmingham. I can remember when they moved to St. Louis, a relatively newly-wed couple, and helping him totally demolish the kitchen of their home as he remodeled their first house together. And now, here they were, that same little house busting at the seams with the two beautiful children that God had given them.

I can still remember getting into a conversation with someone at this couple’s house and being 10 minutes or so into the conversation before I realized that this person was not a Christian. I remember the shock and then the subsequent conviction of being surprised by the presence of a non-believer in a Christians home. This is one event that shaped my outlook on Christian ministry almost more than any class I sat through during seminary.

Countless other interactions throughout the weekend continually reminded me of the value of a life lived together, in community. It was all capped off by a tremendously encouraging sermon at Riverside Church entitled “the Neighbor Jesus Loves” by one of my former professors. It is actually one of a series of messages that would be well worth the time to download to podcast for further reflection and digestion. The truth of Scripture delivered with his trademark humility and conversational style reminded me why I was so impacted by the life and the instruction of a guy named Zack Eswine.

And now here I am back at home, energized, thankful to God for the reminder of his faithfulness, and looking forward to the people whom we will cross paths with over these next several months and years. These “neighbors whom Jesus loves” who one day years into the future, Susie and I will be able to visit and recount days gone by when, through the power of the gospel true life was lived, together.