Wallace:   Come in. We were just about to have some cheese.
Wendolene:   Oh, no! Not cheese. Sorry. It brings me out in a rash. Can’t stand the stuff.
Wallace:   (Gulps) Not even Wensleydale?
~ Wallace and Grommit: A Close Shave

In the Garden Adam walked with God and yet things were not perfect—so God made a companion. Which is strange to think that God needed an extra step to make things right. I doubt He was surprised that Adam needed a friend. I think instead He was teaching. A simple reminder that He has made us for relationship. And to this day we need community, to the point that many of us are fearful of being alone. So fearful we become immobilized when we are not sure others will go along with us.

After a great victory, when God literally answered his prayer and rained fire from heaven, Elijah is running for his life. He finds himself on a mountainside pondering suicide, when God intervenes. Elijah announces a wish to die, why? “I am the only one left…” (1Kings 19:14). But God will have no whining and orders him to get up and get into action. Then God continues, “Yet I reserve seven thousand in Israel—all whose knees have not bowed down to Baal and whose mouths have not kissed him” (v18).

As Christians we often feel alone. And in this poverty of relationship we are immobilized. Yet, the reality of the situation is far different. We are not alone—many would stand with us… if only one would be brave enough to lead the way.

Ivy enjoys reading a book titled, “I’ll Love You Forever” where a mom rocks her baby and sings, “I’ll love you forever…” As the child grow she keeps rocking and singing, until there is a creepy scene where she sneaks into his house and rocks him as a man while chanting, “I’ll love you forever…” Yet, no matter how cheesy, I always get choked up as the mom grows old and then her son rocks her in the same way. I know the book is goofy, even strange, but I can not help but love the unabashed affection. The action that is not worried about what others will think and instead reaches out to build real relationships.

Too often we live worried lives. Lives where we do not act because we are scared what others will think. We want to be taken seriously—or at least not be laughed at—so we wait for someone else to go first… then we will not be alone… And so all the Christians are on the sideline, waiting and wondering why the victory seems so elusive?!

As an aside on cheese, we LOVE Wallace and Gromit. The show is super clever. Even more, I love this ad I saw for a men’s clothing store in England. Rather than hire muscular models, they asked the claymation stars to sport their clothes. This was not safe or normal—it was even a little goofy. But seriously, it is the best ad I have seen in ages. And it makes me tempted to buy their clothes (of course not I tempted enough to cross the Atlantic!). In the same way, the world want us to be real—not just safely copying others…