Will she fellowship?

My daughter showed me a funny youtube video the other day. These two silly guys were taking a variety of strange things, such as charcoal and caviar and asking, “Will it pizza?” Now, that’s not really grammatically correct, any more than my variation of it in the title of this blogpost, but since life and my learning with the Lord go hand-in-hand, I thought about this idea as it relates to fellowship. You know, the koinonia kind. This is because I’ve been in a women’s Bible study on I John and the author, who was, ahem, John, seemed to be encouraging that in the first century church in his letters.

I am weird. I look at people and want to know them:  know their hurts, their dreams, their struggles, their victories and “do life” with them. My extroverted brain works way overtime when I’m in a room with a lot of people. My husband laughs at how I flit around like a social butterfly and tend to remember names and details about people’s lives and maintain a number of long-distance relationships (friendships, obviously, not the romantic kind!). He says it exhausts him just thinking about all the communication I do with folks. But, I think it’s because I look at each person like those goofy guys looked at a pizza crust with a new, bizarre topping. I look at another woman and think, “Will she fellowship?” or a man and think, “Will he fellowship?”

Ok, I don’t use those actual words in my mixed-up brain, but I think you get the idea. I’ve heard people talking about other people and saying that they’re shallow or lacking intelligence, or puffed up… This annoys me, honestly. People may appear shallow if you just give them a passing glance or 5 minute conversation, but each of us has depth. Some of us just have become experts at hiding it.

Why? Why hide who you are? Why pen up the beautiful person God created you to be? Why muffle the eloquence the Holy Spirit has spoken to you to share with others?

Maybe it’s a defense mechanism, borne out of fear. Fear of becoming vulnerable… being rejected. We all want to be loved and accepted.

There’s a reason we are called members of the Body of Christ. No body part can exist on its own. In I Corinthians 12, Paul cracks me up with his discussion of this, with the parts of the body declaring themselves useless: “Because I am not a hand, I do not belong to the body,” said the foot. Ha!

A lot of folks go to church, sing the songs, stand and sit when they’re supposed to, toss their offering in the plate, even attend Bible study, but miss the whole point of what it means to BE the church. It is our fellowship that makes our joy complete! (Check out what our older brother, John says about that in the first chapter of his first epistle) We are to embarrass ourselves, make ourselves vulnerable, laugh, cry, hold each other accountable, sing, pray, hug… live LIFE together.

This family is the one we’ll have for eternity! Even that lady in Bible study that seems to hog all the conversation time… she is your sister in Christ. Get to know her! Find out why she feels like she needs to be heard. Even that man who always talks about politics and puts down government leaders…he is your brother in Christ. Find out who he is behind the political rhetoric. Each of us needs the other. And, it is our sincere love for each other that will draw those who don’t know Jesus to want to be part of this crazy, mixed-up Body.

Not long after tenderly washing His disciples’ callused, dusty feet, Jesus said to them,

 “A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.”

Oh, how I want people to know that we are Jesus’ disciples, don’t you?

So, the next time you see a brother or sister in Christ, ask yourself, “Will he/she fellowship?” And, know that, without a doubt, if they are a foot and you’re a hand, the answer is “YES!”