BLUF: Spiritual connection is crucial.

Each month with a group of believers from church, our Sunday school class gathers multiple times for fellowship. We do what we call “Breakfast Sunday” the first Sunday of each month before I begin teaching. Then on the second Saturday of each month, we gather for a time of fellowship and fun, invariably as part of eating together and just hanging out for games and time together. “Monthly Fellowship” (such a clever title, right?) God uses to craft and deepen Christian relationships. We are not in our “Sunday clothes,” if you will, but in our everyday threads.

What has happened over the years is that the class has grown of course; but more than that, it has deepened theologically. That’s the key. There is a spirit among the people that is special. Why? It’s because they understand that the spiritual connection that exists among them is the most important one. We are designed for spiritual connection. And when we act in accordance with God’s design, we (to change the metaphor) fire on all cylinders. 

Connection & Encouragement: I am quite aware that a nation’s army is not the church. But the centrality of soldiers’ spiritual lives ought not be annexed to a check-the-box bureaucratic regimen. Believe me, when things get real, soldiers and families are spiritual. Those theological terms some people banter around on holidays suddenly are not mere terms; they become viscerally important. I’ve never led a memorial service at a unit where I didn’t see commanders, 1SGs, and soldiers break down when they stood before a downturned weapon with a fellow soldier’s dog tags hanging from the pistol grip. We are designed for spiritual connection. 

May we have the intellectual honesty and courage to follow the true and wise one, or as Christ says in Scripture, ” . . . wisdom is justified [shown to be right/vindicated] by all her children” (Luke 7:35).