The Community of the Pit

Last night a bunch of guys gathered around the fire pit in my backyard. It is sacred space.
       In an unconventional way it is Acts 2:42-47 lived out on a micro level, for a moment in time, with guys finding their way through life.
       This is the text of the email I sent out to a bunch of guys inviting them out last night:

" Thanks to the creativity of Jim Maynard and the sweat of a bunch of guys, we put a fire pit in my backyard a few years back. There has been many a beer drunk and stogie smoked around that fire - in the dead of winter and in the heat of summer.

       We have been labeled in a variety of ways:

   * Boyz AT the Pit

      * Boyz OF the Pit

         * Boyz IN the Pit

I suppose is depends on the state of your heart and mind at the time.

Many a conversation has been had around the pit -

  * Job promotions, job losses, pay cuts

  * Marital bliss and marital strife

  * We have celebrated new life, we have cursed the loss of life

  * We have talked sports rivalries

  * We have debated the politics of gun ownership and gun control (and we are still talking to each other!)

  * We have shared homemade brew and smoked finely rolled cigars from around the world

For me the Firepit is Sacred Space. A place of respite, of safety, of laughter and weeping, of no BS at times and lots of BS at other times! :o)

_____________________
       Last night was all this and more - a dozen of us huddled around the fire and caught up on life after a number of months apart.
       There were newcomers and old-timers, drinkers and a non-drinker, smokers and non-smokers, younger and older (Steven even came out for a while with the guys!).
       I am deeply grateful for this ad hoc group of guys who sporadically gathers around the pit and shares life together, as we all stare into the flames.
       It is holy and profane, the mundane and absolute core stuff of life, it's community.