8-1-21 | Kingdom Flips Family | Jeremy Hudson
Jeremy Hudson   -  

A few weeks ago, my son and I snuck away for some Father-Son time in Washington DC. Though we went to see some important sites in our nation’s capital city, the overarching goal was to spend time together, have some life-giving conversations, and make memories that we would cherish for years. I am so grateful that we were able to do all of that, and our time together was even more rich and special than anything I could have dreamed.

While we were there, we had the opportunity to see the Washington Nationals take on the Florida Marlins. This wasn’t on our original trip plan… it just kind of happened.

On our first day in town, I posted a picture of Nate and I downtown, and an hour or so later, I got a text from a friend of mine, Kwame (Kwa-ME), that said “Hey, are you in D.C. now?”

Kwame and his family lived in Springfield for a couple years while he was a soccer coach for a local university, and he and his family attended Fellowship. Over the couple of years that they were with us, Kwame and I (along with our families) developed a close relationship. It was sad day eight years ago when a better coaching opportunity came along and they moved east to Maryland—two hours past D.C.

Over the years Kwame and I would text back and forth from time to time… maybe post a comment here or there on each other’s social media, but we haven’t really spent any time together or talked at length since he left.

Which is why his text, “Hey, are you in D.C. now?” caught my eye. Through a series of text messages over the next 60 minutes he and I devised an impromptu meeting, purchased four tickets (for us and both of our sons), and two days later we met up four rows back from the right field wall of Nationals Park.

It was a great time! Seriously… one of those could-not-have-gone-better-if-we-planned-it-months-ago kind of moments. The game was good, but the connection and companionship made it an “out of the park home run” (Baseball pun intended)

Later that night I had one more text exchange with Kwame. At his request, I texted around midnight… once Nate and I had finally gotten back to our Airbnb, letting him know that we had successfully navigated the DC Metro. Our exchange went like this:

Me: Home safe! Love ya, Bro!

Kwame: Awesome! Great to see you! Love you too.

At first glance this might seem like an odd or unusual exchange. We are two guys who didn’t grow up together, we just met through church. We spent the usual amount of time you would spend with someone who lives in your town… over just a couple of years. In the eight years since, our communication has been an occasional text or reply on social media. When put in those terms, it could seem or sound weird.

But it’s not weird at all. You know why?  Because we are FAMILY

Here’s my point… Nate and I aren’t Washington Nationals fans. Nor are we Florida Marlins fans. We really don’t know anybody in the Washington area either.

So, out of two dugouts of players and a stadium of people there that night– we didn’t feel any connection to any of them, except the two guys sitting next to us. It wasn’t just because we were friends years ago when they used to live in Ohio and called Fellowship their church home…

It was because the four of us share a relational bond, a connection that only comes from knowing we see life through the lens of the same inverted Kingdom. It’s why BEING CHURCH IS NOT AN ATTENDANCE EVENT…. IT IS A CONNECTION COMMUNITY.

That is what the church is called to be… Family. And Family is always worth fighting for!