Fight! Fight! Fight! (in a schoolyard chant)

because now i'm the most inconsistant blogger in the world, i'm vowing to try to write more frequently. its been a crazy semester.

i'm reading a really good book by frank mcCourt. its his story growing up in sad, impoverished ireland. so good. so aweful. very sad. but i like it and want to punch him for being able to write so much better than i can but he's old and its not good to punch older guys. so i just read.

i have this friend who plays a college sport. and this friend i have told me today that one of her teamates was getting picked on by this girl down the hall so they all met at the lake to fight. now, i'm not a guy who condones fighting... but there's a point to this story. so they get to the lake and the entire team is on one side and all the other girl's friends are on the other... the two girls fight and there's no clear winner and they all go their separate ways.

when the teamate gets in the car with her team she tearfully asks, "did i do okay?" and they all embrace her and tell her how good a fighter she is and how she stood up for herself blah blah blah... but they also tell her they are proud of her. she beams. she had the respect and pride of her team. she won.

again, i don't think fighting is good. bad actually. but i think belonging is wonderful, and some of us will fight to do it. we'll rally around each other because the entire team is there watching. we'll scrap and claw to belong, to be a part, to have community.

i wonder what community would be like in our college ministry is we ALL felt like we were fighting (peacefully) for something grand. if one of us was in trouble would we rally around them and tell them how great they are doing and how much we believe in them? why do we let each other flounder and begin to sink rather than cheering them on and hugging their neck when the trial is over? in galatians we're told to carry one anothers burdons, that doing so actually fulfills Christ's law. his 2nd most important of them all...