Connect

As a United Methodist we talk about our connectional system.  We,  as United Methodists, are all connected to one another in some way.  I marveled the first time I went to a writers conference at the Publishing House that everyone in the room was struggling over the same issues and waiting to learn about the next appointment.  We were from all over the US, but shared, connected, on all the same things.  This image is from the Publishing house. 

But I think we must be careful that our connections don’t become “clicks,”  little circles of friends with common interests.  We connect to have greater outreach and resources, not to exclude, although it some times comes to that.  I believe that the thin places God has for us on on the edge of the connections, not in the middle.  That when we connect in ever widening circles we connect in the ways that God intended.

I was flying to a conference one year, a UM conference, and the plane was pretty much full of other UM.  To the extent just prior to take off a bishop stood up and proclaimed “the Lord be with you,”  to which most of the aircraft responded “and also with you.”   We were a click.  The fellow sitting across the aisle from me tapped my shoulder, and asked “so y’all are religious people?”  I responded in the affirmative, and he asked “are y’all a drinking religious people, cause if you ain’t I want your drink coupon.”  That was a connection.

And it became a thin place.