Koinonia

Love is:
~a verb.
~an action.
~a feeling.
~a belief.
~a reason.
~a many splendored thing.

How many people have tried to define love? How many philosophical and impassioned discussions have there been on the subject? Too many to count I'm sure.

I don't have an answer and I'm not trying to stir up another discussion.

I just have a few comments to make.

There are some people that I like. Some that I tolerate. Some that I may never have more than a passing acquaintance with.

Then there are some people that I genuinely love.

Sure, there's my family.

But there are friends for whom I have a deep, platonic love for.

A love birthed in fellowship.

{Fellowship -
{1. the state of sharing mutual interests, experiences, activities, etc.
{2. a society of people sharing mutual interests, experiences, activities, etc.; club
{3. companionship; friendship

I recently had the priveledge of gathering together with a group of friends that I love. It was a group that hasn't assembled for about 5 years. I've seen some of them off and on over the past few years, but this was a special time.

We shared joy together. We laughed. We shared trouble together. We prayed.

Truly this is a group that I share Koinonia with.

{Koinonia -
{Christian fellowship or communion with God or with fellow Christians;
{said in particular of the early Christian community.

I don't tell them often enough how much I value them. Honestly, the depth of my feeling for each of them doesn't in anyway make light of my other friendships and relationships.

But I read something today that I felt applied specifically to this group:

"I thank my God every time I remember you. In all my prayers for all of you, I always pray with joy because of your partnership in the gospel from the first day until now, being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus." ~ Philippians 1:3-6

I love you guys.

Two Hits & A Miss

So, as I mentioned before, I'm a big reader. But I've been taking a break over the last month or two. Busy life yields little time for the library. I did however, manage to sneak a quick trip in last Sunday. All three books I brought home were by authors I didn't really have a previous acquaintance with. Hit or miss, right?

Thankfully, two of these turned out to be gems.

The first, Gone to Green by Judy Christie, is about a big city editor who gets stuck with the ownership of a small town paper. Committed for a year to small town Louisianna, Lois Barker has to figure out how to fight prejudice and inject change into both the paper and the town. Great read. I look forward to picking up the sequal.

The second book was by author Kristen Heitzmann. Now I had read Halos before, and though enjoyable, it didn't really leave me with a strong affinity for her work. This book changed my mind. Finally, a good Christian author who doesn't try to wrap things up in a tidy package of 250 pages or less.

A Rush of Wings tells the tale of a woman on the run.

From something.

About picking up her life.

Somewhere.

About her personal journey.

Oh, yeah, and her romances.

Though, I must say at the end, I was thinking, "But what happens to the other guy?!?"

Thankfully, I've discovered she wrote his story too. That's on my list for the next drive by at the library.

Oh? You want to know about the third book? Well, I've struggled to get through the first chapter. It just hasn't grabbed me yet. I may give it another try. Or it may go back for some other lucky reader to snatch up.