I continue to ponder this community thing. This morning I'm pondering mates. I've come to believe over my short life that we all need mates. You're thinking, "Quit saying mates, what do you mean by mates?"
Mate [meyt]
–noun
1. husband or wife; spouse.
2. one member of a pair of mated animals.
3. one of a pair: I can't find the mate to this glove.
4. a counterpart.
5. an associate; fellow worker; comrade; partner (often used in combination): classmate; roommate.
6. friend; buddy; pal (often used as an informal term of address): Let me give you a hand with that, mate.
7. Nautical.
I'm referring to 4/5/6 on this list but my definition is slightly different. In my dictionary there's a difference between friend and mate.
Mate [meyt]
–noun
1. a comrade; counterpart; brother whose face you can throw a shoe at and still be alright. A buddy you can angrily disagree with one minute and hug it out the next.
Getting to this level of mate takes time. One of my
best good mates was a roommate in college. We had some doozie fights. We were both born with large amounts of stubborn brain cells. We could go toe to toe one minute and then be laughing about something the next. We weren't bi-polar. We were mates. I'm no relationship scientist but I honestly think that physical violence unleashed on another's face, whether that be a shoe or a milk-jug boxing glove (both stories for another day) somehow takes friendships to the next level. You either become enemies or mates. Various physical and verbal bouts are what took Tyler and I to the next level I think. (is this getting too gay?)
I'm not saying go around punching your friends in attempt to mine new mates. But I will say that we all need one or two people who are on the next level of friendship. And I think it's important that they be in our lives now. We need counterparts who can call us out, verbally punch us and we'll still be OK. It's that whole iron sharpening iron thing. Sure the sharpening hurts, but the transformation into super-pointy, iron-swords is pretty rad. That's when you upgrade to #7. Nautical.
2000+ bricks are being delivered to VCC's doorstep today. They're headed under each seat of the auditorium. Bricks are lazy buggers. They need carried everywhere. Help me carry them. Meet me in the auditorium all day today and starting at 10am on Saturday. They're for a prayer experience this weekend at VCC. I really believe it'll be worth the work. I need your help.
I continue to ponder this community thing. This morning I'm pondering mates. I've come to believe over my short life that we all need mates. You're thinking, "Quit saying mates, what do you mean by mates?"
I pictured people from the 1800s. I doubt they did much in their pajamas except sleep or walk to the outhouse. If they wanted community they'd put on corsets, suits, rouge and stroll to courtyards and military parades. They would've had no way to hear about ALL their friends' weekend adventures without serious effort and formality. 
In the 90s I spent countless hours at 90210 parties just to interact with my stonewashed cronies. Now I roll out of bed and I'm popping and locking with all of you from the comfort of my flannels. 
Yesterday I spoke at this class (Alpha) where folks are exploring the basics of Christianity, asking the hard questions, seeing if it's the real deal or not. I told some old stories I haven't told in awhile. The topic was prayer. Asking me to talk about prayer would be like asking George Foreman to talk about microwaves. But one of the things I threw out there was this Status Update prayer idea. In Facebook and Twitter (Miley Cyrus' fav tool) you update people (in the 3rd Person) on what you're doing. "Miley is watching dad get pancakes stuck in his soul patch." Then two hours later... "Miley is grumpy." Her friends comment. "LOL, Mileeeeeeee. I'm grumpy too!!! ;)" and "Does your dad still have friends in low places?"
March 10 is the day Chuck Norris punched his way out of a dragon's womb. Tonight, while millions of people are celebrating his birth I will celebrate his rebirth. By now, we've all experienced the infamous Chuck Norris Facts. It is my theory that these facts were responsible for Chuck roundhousing his way back into mainstream. It is also my theory that these facts were inspired by the old Bill Brasky sketches on SNL. So, if you follow that logic out, Brasky is Chuck's rebirth father. TO BILL BRASKY!
