Each One Unique

For a town of just about 10,000 people, Monticello has a pretty nice Community Center. Pool, walking/running track, basketball courts, weight equipment, climbing wall, treadmills, bikes, ellipticals, meeting rooms. Whether it is because of the nice facilities, or because it is -15 outside, there are quite a few people using the Community Center these days. People walk and run at different paces and choose their own intensity in the pool and on the weight machines. There is no minimum or maximum speed and no one officially judging the quality of the workout. Each proceeds at their own pace. And every pace is OK. If someone is going faster than me, it doesn't make them better and me worse. If someone is lifting more energetically than me it doesn't make them Superman and me Underdog. No one is counting to see how many laps I run, or how much time I spend on the treadmill. Because the goal is better fitness and people come at this whole adventure from different starting points.

Certainly there are right and wrong ways to use the machines--and the wrong uses can damage the machine or hurt the user. But ultimately, if each one walks out of the Community Center just a little bit more fit, the time there has been a success.

I think that one of the strengths of Quarry Community Church is that the church seems to understand this concept--that people come from a lot of different starting points. Some churches make you feel like you have to get your life cleaned up a certain amount, or in some kind of order, before you can attend. But not the Quarry. Come as you are would not be just a tag line. Yet come as you are doesn't mean stay as you are. The Quarry also is developing a roadmap of how to experience spiritual growth (how about whole life growth?) that will encompass starting where a person is, and moving forward on a journey of becoming more and more like Jesus in priorities, words, thoughts, and deeds. I'm excited about being part of a church community that is looking at life this way.

I don't need to measure myself against anyone else. I just have to ask the question, "Am I closer to the goal today than I was yesterday?"

Pressing On!