Often people say that they love coming to a place with so many like-minded people.
I know just what they are getting at -- and I know that they aren’t getting it quite right.
I don’t want to be with a bunch of people who think just like me.
I want to be in a beloved community where I don’t have to think like everyone else to be loved, to be eligible for salvation.
I want to be with people who value compassion, justice, love and truth, though they have different thoughts and opinions about all sorts of things.
I want to be with independent-minded people of good heart.
I want to be with people who have many names and no name at all for God.
I want to be with people who see me in me goodness and dignity, who also see my failings and foibles, and who still love me.
I want to be with people who feel their inter-connection with all existence and let it guide their footfalls upon the earth.
I want to be with people who see life as a paradox and don’t always rush to resolve it.
I want to be with people who are willing to walk the tight rope that is life and who will hold my hand as I walk mine.
I want to be with people who let church call them into a different way of being in the world.
I want to be with people who support, encourage and even challenge each other to higher and more ethical living.
I want to be with people who inspire one another to follow the call of the spirit.
I want to be with people who covenant to be honest, engaged and kind, who strive to keep their promises and hold me to the promises I make.
I want to be with people who give of themselves, who share their hearts and minds and gifts.
I want to be with people who know that human community is often warm and generous, sometimes challenging and almost always a grand adventure.
In short, I want to be with people like you.
