Connect

"It's not good for man to be alone." -God

I spent the morning with fantastic volunteers as we hosted a 5K race through Chick-Fil-A on our main

campus. A group of us met at 5:00 am to begin the setup and some stayed throughout the day to complete the tear down after close to 200 runners hit the course. The sense of community was strong, but in so many diverse ways. There was a camaraderie among the staff from Chick-Fil-A that was evident in the familiarity of their humor and organized responsibilities. Our church volunteers were comfortable with each other (although perhaps not the level of conversation at that hour of the morning) and shared chicken biscuits with each other as the wind picked up and the temperature dropped. The racers themselves shared a common bond of running in local races together. We were all part of one crowd as people crossed the finish line to cheers, high fives, and celebrations. We ended the morning with a group prayer with the race staff and the volunteer stalwarts and congratulated each other on a successful event.

It's all reflective of our need for community and the different forms in which we find it. It's not always perfect and it certainly never progresses exactly as we anticipate, but it's an essential part of our social development and it helps us maintain our connection to something that is real. We weren't meant to go through life alone and if we pay attention we'll see that we have more connections around us than we often realize.