"Wasting" Time

"The only really important time in our lives is the time we waste with those we love."
- Antoine de St. Exupery

I'm certainly looking forward to "wasting time with those I love" this weekend. Is there really any such thing as "wasted time" if you're doing something together? We're made for community, for being and experiencing life in the context of groups and families. In the first couple of chapters of A New Way To Be Human, Peacock writes about how we might have the whole gospel story wrong since we normally think of it and talk about it as a "personal salvation" experience, instead of contexting it properly as a community and "body of Christ" kind of thing.

Basically, if *I* come to church for *me* to feel better or for *my* ministry, and if *my* family comes every week and *we* get what *we* need from the church, then there comes a time when *I* feel like *I* don't need to come this week, or *I* don't need to participate in this event because *I* was so committed to the last event, etc. *You* get the picture. What would change in *my* psyche if *I* became more focused on *the community* and how *we* really don't have diddly-squat *by ourselves* outside of the connectedness and interplay of groups of people honestly seeking to live the Kingdom here and now?

That's why it's been important to us to *not* miss church with all the stuff that's been going on. We'll visit a new church this weekend, looking for a place to connect because that's what we're supposed to be about, being people of God together. We're not necessarily looking for *our* church home, but for a community that clicks with us and us with them.