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Wednesday’s House of Refuge is one big mess; and in this we have been blessed mightily. I have been in many small groups: all men, accountability, bible study, Celebrate Recovery, leadership, mixed, etc., etc., and from these experiences I think something special is happening. I have shared that I’m going through a messy divorce. I’m in therapy and learning new things about my personal mess. I know I have a “thorn in my side” and a “log in my eye”. This is why I feel that the big fat Wednesday mess is exciting.

I feel that I don’t know everybody who comes, though I try. I feel that some of the people have been “unsafe”. I don’t agree with everybody all the time. And all of this is just as it should be! The “safe” small group is safe when we know everybody, have rejected the opposite sex, and have agreed on a specific type of communication. In my years of experience these safe small groups all have a singular metamessage; that we all agree to support each other in doing the same things and thinking the same thoughts over and over again expecting different results. Now we feel safe.

That must be what Jesus told us to do. He must have never let women near him, being a man. He must have never been with big crowds of strangers, strangers aren’t safe, heck somebody might try to break through the roof. And most certainly He never talked to unsafe people like Pharisees.

The last few weeks it has been a struggle to drive to Arvada on Wednesday yet every-time it has been a blessing. It is not easy to bring my log blinded eye and thorny wounds and plop them down in the scary Wednesday mess. But each time I do I have been blessed by all the unsafe people, wrong ideas, and women as well as my “safe” friends. Every week I have received the joy of leaving a little happier and a little more at peace than when I arrived.