Encouragement.
Ever have a thought that you thought was your thought but then you read or hear someone else thinking that thought and you realize that there are very few good thoughts that are held by just one person? Yesterday morning I was pondering the difference between being a friend and just being friendly. Really it is the difference between truly loving and simply tolerating.
So, I was thinking this thought and then Amy and I walked in to a bookstore to find some reading material for the second leg of the vacation. I purchased the Emergent Manifesto of Hope and, lo and behold, in the very first pages the authors used the same exact phrasing to explain the atmosphere of friendship and mutual affection that is the very blood of emerging Christianity.
And I want to go so far as to say that it is not just a perceived or desired position, but it is the very real posture. It is the thing that allows the Baptists and the Episcopalians and the Anabaptists and the Wesleyans to all claim their place in this emerging Christianity. We want this posture of friendship. In our own lives and in those with whom we interact. And when we find it it is infectious!
A couple days before we had the opportunity to share a meal with Doug Pagitt. His own posture of friendship probably spurred me on to the thoughts that I would later learn had actually been penned by the very fellow that inspired them in me. This was a conversation that has truly inspired me to carry on conversations with my local neighbors and co-conspirators. I have an further-increasing excitement about where we are headed as friends in Ontario.
I am more convinced than ever that we are moving in a very worthy direction. A Holy direction.
