Lessons from the Fish Bowl

Hebrews 10:25
And let us not neglect our meeting together, as some people do, but encourage one another, especially now that the day of his return is drawing near.

This morning was like any other morning. I woke up at 7AM and made my way into the kitchen to put the coffee on. Each morning for I don't know how many years my first priority has been to feed our goldfish "Fluffy". Fluffy is the spartest goldfish ever. He knows as soon as the light turns on in the kitchen that it is time for him to be fed. If I mistakenly make the coffee first or get busy doing some other chore then he makes a funny noise at the top of his bowl to get my attention. I would almost swear that in a past life he was a golden retreiver. While living in apartments and not being allowed to have pets our family opted on goldfish. Fluffy was the lone survivor and had been with out family for a few years. He had been the topic of conversation at many gatherings at the Cooke house. When we moved to our house in the country Fluffy was given a position of prominence in our home. He was placed where our family spends much of their time with each other and freinds. On the kitchen counter.
This morning was like any other. I shuffled into the kitchen and immediately noticed that Fluffy was not at the top of the bowl. Sometimes if it's really cool in the house he goes to the bottom of the bowl. I sprinkled a little food on top and still, no Fluffy. My heart sank. I looked on the counter behind the bowl and sure enough, Fluffly had jumped out of the water onto the counter. It was too late to save him.
I don't know what possessed the crazy fish to jump out of the bowl. He had never done that before and his first attempt was succesful and tragic.
So I had to wake my family and tell them that Fluffy was gone.
What lesson can I possibly learn from this.
I am sitting at my desk and thinking about the events of the morning when suddenly I am reminded of the above verse.
We are so much like our goldfish. We swim around in our little bowl and one day we decide to jump out into the vastness of space leaving the safety of the bowl.
My first thought on this vein was that how many of us leave the safety of our church family and then are so surprised when we find ourselves laying on the counter alone in the darkness, gasping for breath. We can't survive whithout the safety of our church family. Our tendency is to look out of the fishbowl and desire to be in the world beyond. So we jump, maybe not all at once. Maybe we stick our tails out of the water. We could survive without a tail if something horrible happens. Nothing happens, and the coolness of the air outside refreshes us and feels nice on our scales. So in the darkness of night we decide, "I will leave the safety of the bowl and jump with all my might out of the bowl". It never occurs to us how we will get back in.
We jump and as we flop and gasp on the counter, we realize that this was not a good idea.
Fellow travelers, we make so many excuses for the things we do. We justify things in our lives that take us away from our church family. Sticking our tails out of the water every now and then refreshes us and feels good to our scales. "I can live without a tail" we tell ourselves. Then when we find ourselves flopping and gasping for our lives. It never occured to us that we would desire to be in the bowl. The bowl was our life.
God's Word tells us that our church family is our fishbowl. We are safe when we are together. It's when we jump out of that bowl and decide to live life alone that we are in danger. A weekend here and Sunday there, a Bible study here a Lifegroup there and sooner or later we find ourselves on the kitchen counter all dried out and ready to be flushed.
In the early church, sticking together was survival. The early Christians had to depend on each other to eat and have shelter. Being a Christian in those times meant posssibly losing everything. Staying in the fishbowl was called survival.
So, as you make your plans for the summer dont' forget, YOU CANNOT LIVE WITHOUT YOUR TAIL!!!
So long, Fluffy. You have taught me many lessons in your short life. Who would have thunk that the end of your life would be the most powerful lesson of all.

Blessings
Allen