In Trinidad & Tobago, every year a competition is held for the best Calypso singer. The winner is called the Monarch. The 2013 Calypso Monarch, Pink Panther sang as one of his winning songs “Travel Woes.” In it he described seeing many “ships” but not one was the “Partnership.” It was obviously a clever play on words describing our current political scene but I also do not recall hearing Pink Panther mention seeing the “Fellowship.” That’s a shame for as we shall see this week, fellowship is so critical to us in our lives.
The very root of the word fellowship means to hold something in common. For us that means each other, that we have community with each other. We can have many different communities, for example, of professions, our neighbourhoods, our church and our friends. God has made us fellowship or community people, that is, we can’t live without it. A man thought he heard a woman say “There’s no mayonnaise in Ireland”. What she really said was “No man is an island”. So true. No one lives or dies only to themselves. We all need relationships. John Ortberg reminds us that no one succeeded at relationships and yet had a bad life.
Today think about the fellowship you share with others. Think about the close ones, your family, friends, church. Thank God for them, appreciate them (value them highly) and tell them thank you for being a friend.
Tomorrow we will see where fellowship really begins.