A Circle On the Porch

We sit in a circle on the back porch. Conversation is about God's creation and how some of us lose sight of His awesome work with all of our electronic gadgets. We slide into a conversation about God's wisdom being readily available to us in Scripture and how we often fail to apply this wisdom in our lives. Some regrets (not really guilty regrets, more wistful acceptance of our life's journey) were expressed by a few of us that we didn't walk in God's wisdom earlier in our lives. How different our lives might have been?
And then I almost miss a pretty amazing comment. One of our guys, who is usually pretty quiet, was on a roll and sharing his heart. One of his statements was how he's learned to really pray in the last six months or so by coming to group. Like many of us he grew up Catholic, went to all Catholic schools, and can whip through all the standard prayers with the best of us - Hail Mary, Our Father, Glory Be, etc. But in our group, he said, he learned how to really pray from his heart. How to make God more real in his everyday life. How to turn some of his stuff over to God and let God be God in his life. And how it's made a difference in his life.
And that's why I come to group every week. God shows up in a different, special, awesome way every week in a small group. A circle on the porch can be a life changing environment.