The Other F-Bomb

Fellowship. (Cue dramatic music.)

A word I've come to dread.

What is Christan fellowship? I feel like a lot of the time its used to merely fill up space on a line when there isn't another word. "Food, friends and fellowship" is always a nice alliteration to put on the flyer, right? Don't get me wrong, because I know I misname it myself, but what is true Christian fellowship?



We have youth fellowship time at church. I like hanging out with my friends, eating some food and occasionally starting a game of Ninja or Death Hack. I enjoy working with the junior high to show them how to play Concentration or watch my peers stuff marshmallows in their mouths during "chubby bunny." Even though I enjoy all of those things, this is not why I come to youth. This "fellowship" we have, I can get anywhere else. What difference can we see during this time of fellowship and at the FCCLA meeting at school?


Take the Laity Banquet for example. For those of you who haven't experienced this, let me sum it up for you. Every year all the churches in our area get together and celebrate the lay persons (everyone but the preachers) in the church. Now I imagine, quite some years ago, this was a great event. Some Methodork that was on fire with enthusiasm and the Holy Spirit probably said something like "you know, we should have a big get together for all the people in our district that we don't get to see very often, and we can recognize all the church has accomplished this year." And because we live in Texas, they said it in a hick accent, and soon decided that we would be serving barbecue at the event.

There are quite a few people who feel obligated to go, or go because someone invited them not knowing really what it was. Now I can find just about anything to be fun and worthwhile, but at the same time the Laity Banquet is pretty dull. We eat, we sit through a few speeches, we all go to Braum's afterwards. While I bet the intentions for the Laity Banquet were good, we are not unified as Christians because we are not working towards a common goal as much as we had hoped.

I think most exciting part of the banquet was putting up the chairs and tables. We all pitched in to get the job done so we could get out of there and get ice cream! In that short 10 minutes I met with new people and recollected with friends. I laughed, I worked, and I felt like I did something useful. It's kind of silly but I feel like the relationships start when we are heading down the path together and not sitting idle. We engaged together therefore grew together. Christian fellowship.


Another example of true Christian fellowship is what I see on mission trip. When I see my friends cheerfully hack away at poison ivy, sweating in the sun because they chose to. I see it there because we aren't playing games (which I love, don't get me wrong,) but because we are striving together to reach a common goal in the name of our Lord. This is true fellowship! And what is better yet, when we engage in this kind of fellowship we are also living out our call as Christians!

It seems to me like we've masked the real meaning of fellowship, turning it into a word that is thrown out like nothing. We use this important practice so that it covers up devotion, worship and mission. This kind of fellowship leads to nowhere, but the real fellowship is one of the best things we've been given.



This is my rant. Is it dumb? Tell me.


Pineapple Tidbit; While I've been getting my Jesus tidbits working at GLC this summer, I've also made sure I am actually eating pineapples also, just so I stay true to this ridiculous name.

Seriously, that was ME?

Today in Psychology we were watching the movie A Beautiful Mind, and the main character made the comment that "everyone is haunted by their past." It made me think because I don't see my past as something I'm haunted by (but then again I don't have a whole lot of past yet.) But now that I ponder that statement, and there are a few things that aren't "bad," but still make me cringe when I think about them.

• I wish that in the 1st grade talent show I wouldn't have done my Hula-Hoop "routine" to "Raw Hide." Or maybe even have had a "routine."
• I wish that I wouldn't have cried almost every day in Kindergarten.
• I sometimes regret yelling at the giant wasp during mission trip.
• I don't like to think about the time Katy and I pushed the wrong code at Barnard's Mill that caused the police to come.
• I'm beginning to question why this blog is called Pineapple Tidbits.

There are many more I've shut out of my memory or just don't care to share. I don't think I'm haunted by these memories, but they do give me some laughs, or cringes. If they didn't, it would mean I haven't grown at all. We often look at our past and judge ourselves according to it, but if we can look and see who we used to be, doesn't it mean we've allowed God to come in so that we become something a little bit better?

Do Good.

Martin Luther King Jr. once said,

"Everyone can be great because anyone can serve. You don't have to have a college degree to serve. You don't have to know about Plato and Aristotle to serve. You don't have to know the second theory of thermodynamics to serve. You only need a heart full of grace and a soul generated by love."

The world tells us we are small. If you've ever been to a Rangers game, or stood in Cowboy stadium with thousands of people around you, you've probably felt small. If you've ever pitched a great idea only to be shut down, you've felt small. The world tells us we can not be great, but when we turn to serve the Kingdom of God, we can be.

In James 3: 2-5 it says,

"2 For we all stumble on many things. If anyone does not stumble in the word, he is a perfect man, able also to bridle the whole body. 3 Indeed, we put bits in horses' mouths that they may obey us, and we turn their whole body. 4 Look also at ships: although they are so large and driven by feirce winds, they are turned by a very small rudder wherever the pilot desires. 5 Even so the tongue is a little member and boasts great things See how great a forest a little fire kindles!"

James is speaking about the umtamable tongue and the evil it can do, but I believe it can also have the same effect with kinds words and actions.

There once was a Christian man who went into a shoe store. Most Christians don't find that the best place to witness, but this man was given the opprotunity and inspired a man in the store. This man, in turn witness to someone who became a great preacher. One Sunday a man was inspired by his sermon so much that he went out and told someone else, and that man was Billy Graham who has inspired millions.

The littlest things we do as Christians can make a huge difference. By going a little out of our way to do God's work we can effect the world in a way we may never know. And even though we don't always see the fruit of our labor we must have faith that God is working.

"And let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds."

-Hebrews 10:24