CREEKSIDE MINISTRIES: The Sheer Joy of Kindred Spirit Companionship

Sometimes we've just gotta get out of our own heads, you know? The endless swirling of our own giant-sized thoughts, the wholehearted self-absorption of our own neediness, the tunnel visioned focus of what's on our own personal plate.

Sometimes we've just gotta take a very purposeful break and tell those iron-sharpening-iron souls in our lives that we truly desire to be in their company and invite them to do life together with us even for just a few precious hours. And to flexibly follow the Spirit's gentle nudges as we gather side by side.

To pull up rickety chairs 'round the table and break bread one with the other ... even if it's just take out. To sit outside on a cool evening, cozying under an afghan together even as the sun sets low while the conversation deepens. To answer 'yes, please' to a repeated offer from a friend who would like nothing better than to lend a hand. Or do a luscious brunch overlooking the river that flows north and south ... and then grab well-worn sneakers for what seems to be a 50 mile hike back and forth over that river's footbridge on the most glorious sabbath afternoon ever.

These gatherings with kindred spirit companions are sheer joy and a much-craved grace, even more so during seasons of uncertainty, of transition, of change. The conversation is easy, stories are shared, the laughter flows, there might be a tear or two that falls. We are stretched and replenished, refueled for the journey ahead. For we each bring out the absolute best in one another as we point our companions to Christ in the most natural and needful ways.

And when all is said and done, we find that the weekend was not at all about us. That life goes on beyond our own four walls. And that it's good, very good, to be totally other-absorbed. And we can't help but smile as we praise God that those kindred spirit friends are in our lives. For good.

No matter where our divergent pathways may lead in the unknown days ahead.