If I were to join you....

The following came about after passing a place of worship this morning - one that seems pretty active and funky and with it....yet traditional.

It got me thinking about groups...specifically groups and communities I have been part of or are still part of.

If I were to join you

Would you still let me be me?

Would you still love me if I were different to the rest of you…?

…thought differently, acted differently?

Would you make me follow a list of rules – 

what to wear, 

what to read, 

what to listen to, 

what to watch?

and who to love?

Would you embrace my wildness? 

Or would you seek to tame it?

If I was down in the depths of the pit, would you just come and sit with me there for a while and just lend me your comforting presence?

Or would you berate me for my sadness, telling me to simply have faith, to cheer up and keep soldiering on?

If I wished things were different what would you think of me?

If I were living with another out of the boundaries you put around the word “Holy” would you pressure me to make it legal and binding or sanctified?

Or would you embrace the sanctity of the beauty of commitment, devotion and trust that already exists?

Would you love the one that I love even if we were the same?

… love me for loving in ways you don’t understand?

Would you show me love in action, or would you bog me down with doctrine and borders and things that are too lofty to contemplate?

Would I have to join you on a scheduled day at a specific time on a regular basis, or would your doors and arms and heart be open to me whenever my feet brought me to you?

If I didn’t join you…but still needed you…

Would you feed me if I were hungry?

Clothe me if I were naked,

Comfort me if I were bereft?

Could I come to your parties and dance with you?

Have an opinion about things that concern us both?

Or would you only do all these things

or allow me to join in if I met the expectation that I would become one of you?

Started thinking your thoughts?

Talking your talk?

Believing your beliefs?

Could I ask questions that have no answer…ones that make you uncomfortable?

Would you be okay with me objecting?

Interjecting?

Protesting?

Suggesting?

Would you hang in there with me even when you want to put me in the too hard basket?

If I were to join you

Would I still be me?