About a month ago, we joined a small group through our new church, and it’s been a great way to get to know some potential friends outside of the youth group circle. The thing that has been sometimes nice, sometimes weird is that we eat dinner together every week. Here are the instructions: Bring something to share.

At our old church, this was called “Pot Providence,” I guess because luck was too pagan of an idea. It also sort of implied that the Holy Spirit would be like the party planner, specially inspiring each cook to bring something that would complement the rest of the offerings. I liked the idea that each pot would contain something heavenly, since my previous experience with plain old pot lucks had been pretty hit-and-miss. (At the old HOP, it was pretty much Pot-Unlucky every time).

Well organizing a well-balanced meal didn’t seem to be much of a priority of the Holy Spirit with this particular gathering. Most of our group is made up of young married couples, who cook about as well as I do, and so our meals might consist of a Little Caesar’s pizza, trail mix, Chinese stir-fry, and three different plates of chocolate brownies. It was a little chaotic for this picky eater. One week we got a lot of chips and dip. Another week three of us brought cake. I started snacking ahead of time out of a fear that we would show up and no one would have brought a main dish. (This was quite a contrast to our other dearly loved Life Group, where I enjoyed extensive planning and dividing of responsibility prior to all of our shared meals.)

Well, finally, we have all started listening to the same Spirit, and last night, we had the most well-rounded meal yet. The choices were still interesting side by side (meatballs, chili, orange chicken, and chicken spaghetti), but we actually had a variety of entrees, a sampling of veggies, and three different and delicious desserts. My contribution was KarenD’s sopapilla cheesecake, which was the most popular of the desserts.

The spiritual conversation at the group is always nutritious and satisfying. It’s a wonderful night when my stomach and my spirit are both well fed!