I’d like to tell you about the party that came from a mistake. Several months ago, I had a conversation with the leaders of the Neighborhood Connectors, and with all the grace for myself that comes from recognizing that I am a human being with many roles in this congregation, I can tell you that I screwed up. How I screwed up is between me and the attendees of the meeting, but you can imagine that there are a hundred million ways that any of us can screw up and I did one of them.
Luckily, I had two things–folks who were willing to tell me that I screwed up and gracious people who were able to accept my apology and attend a “do-over” meeting. And, from all that, the amazing picnic that we had two weeks ago happened. There was so much energy and positivity of gathering in our neighborhood groups and also there was such great food from our brand new members Mike, Herb and Mickey (with a solid assist from Mike’s wife Cindy).
The whole story of the party that came from a mistake and the connections were made were a reminder of the message from my first sermon to you all–on HUMANING together. Humaning is the art of being fully human together, knowing that we will make mistakes, sharing understanding, support and accountability, and recognizing that sometimes being human is hard and other times it is downright magical. The Neighborhood Connectors humaned their way through supporting us in the pandemic, and we all humaned our way right into a great party.
Last week, we had another great picnic hosted by the foundation, and in two weeks, we’re hoping and planning on bringing back Community Nights. Hopefully, we’ll do it all with grace and humor and big doses of humaning.