Good morning, world. Things are looking pretty good from the front porch of my farm in Virginia today. It’s a whopping 32° this morning, and the wind is blowing, so it feels even colder than it is. Spring in Virginia is unpredictable and full of surprises – one day it’s hot and the next day it’s cold until FINALLY, Summer arrives and there will be no more bath and forth. In addition to my “normal view” from the front porch, occasionally, I’ll get to see a flock of peacocks running free, and we are blessed to see them when they pass through. I’m not sure how many there are for sure – 5 or 6, maybe more? – but interestingly, we’ve never seen them all at once. The only consistent one we see in the flock is the male. The females come in all kinds of shapes and sizes, and they don’t appear to be the same age. All I know is that they are flocking together, and really the only thing they seem to have in common is the fact that they’re all peacocks; peacocks on a mission to search for quality of life. Humans are a little different. We want quality of life too, but we’re only happy if we’re around people like ourselves, and we’ll sacrifice just about anything to find it. The rich want to hang out with the rich and the poor with the poor. The old want to hang out with the old and the young with the young. I’m no expert, but I believe the peacocks might have it right – they seem to laser-focus on their common goal with no concern whatsoever over their differences. Isn’t that the way the Church should be, too?

If there’s one thing Christian people tend to obsess over, it’s how old they’ll be in heaven and how we will recognize each other if we get a brand new, indestructible, eternal body. Instead of obsessing over the fact that Heaven is real and the Qualified get to spend eternity there with no more sickness, sadness, or tears (WOW) people obsess over how old they’ll be, what they’ll look like, and how they’ll recognize their friends and loved ones. Some people even lose sleep at night as they obsess over whether or not the family dog makes it to Heaven, AND some go as far as to say they don’t even want to go to Heaven if their furry friends aren’t going to be there. As much as people fuss over how they look here and how they’ll look in Heaven…as fixated as they can be about hanging out with people their own age…NONE of it matters at all because we’re all just a gift-wrapped Soul. So, it doesn’t take a genius to figure out that what we’ll recognize in Heaven is the SOUL of our loved ones, no matter what the new packaging looks like. I’ll know you and you’ll know me because the essence of us isn’t how old we are or what we look like…it’s the Soul. So, when you boil it all down, the ONLY thing that matters (or ever has) is what the Soul looks like to the Living God and whether or not we’re Qualified to be with Him forever.

Nothing brings out our obsession over silly things like being with people just like us than church does. Unlike the peacocks that remain laser-focused on the Common Goal instead of what the others look like, how old they are, how many people flock there, and what’s in it for them, we tend to focus on the outward much more than the Inward. When it comes to the Soul, it doesn’t matter what kind of gift wrapping we’ve been given for our Journey here on earth. It doesn’t matter how old we are because the Soul is timeless (and eternal). Most importantly, the Soul NEVER focuses on “what’s in it for me?” because the Qualified Soul is too busy staying laser-focused on God and the Purpose of our Journey here. To me, it’s very sad to hear people talk about what they look for in a local church as they set out to search for a group of people most like themselves. The same age, the same likes and dislikes, the same music – you name it – and when (or if) they find a church that meets their criteria, they think they’ve found the (almost) perfect church. Some have lost sight of the importance of the Common Goal in the Journey of Faith, and they’re satisfied with remote control church as far away from the flock as they can get. And then there are people like me. I’m in the Soul business, so names, ranks, and serial numbers don’t matter even a little bit…what matters is the Soul. I want to stir Souls up and cause them to laser focus on the Common Goal more and more, and I want to inspire them to toss the personal preferences down the toilet so that they ONLY Focus on the Soul instead. Come to find out, that’s what makes the (almost) Perfect Church – a body of Believers much more interested in flocking together as they reach for the Common Goal than they are “what’s in it for me?”

I’ll be Heaven bound sooner rather than later and there isn’t much in this Life that thrills me the way being with a group of Laser Focused beautiful Flock of Souls does. It doesn’t matter the shape or the size. It doesn’t matter the tone of the skin. It doesn’t matter how old or how young – it doesn’t even matter the quality of Life because as long as we’re Laser Focused on our Common Goal we’ll have EVERYTHING we need to please the Living God through this Journey of Faith. Think about it – the Qualified ones will be “stuck” with each other forever in a place so wonderful that it defies words. With that in mind, who in their right mind even cares if the outside is different than yours? The outside is just a gift-wrapped package hosting the Soul that will live forever. Trust me, you’ll recognize me because my Soul will be all that you see. So, the only thing that REALLY matters is where the Soul will be spending eternity. Now that is enough to motivate me to flock with the others as we chase our Common Goal together…to me, that is what the (almost) perfect church looks like!

How about you?