[Latin]–a feast or banquet; or, more broadly, a living together, from con + vivo.

Once upon a time, long ago, people ate meals together. Sometimes these meals would last for days. Sometimes merely hours. Sometimes it was merely the breaking of bread and drinking a bit of wine. Other times a fatted calf was killed and a party ensued the like of which you ain’t seen in, well… ages. People not only at together, they talked. In between bites, or perhaps, when the conversation got good, during bites, they would share their opinions, beliefs, convictions, the latest joke they heard, and all manner of things with each other.

Those were the days, eh.

What’s happened to our world? We go out to eat, but the restaurants are so loud we can’t really talk. We talk on the phone but are too busy to really delve deep into the reservoirs of each others minds. We gather over coffee at Starbucks or Fido and tell each other about the happenings in our lives, but we never listen to each others hearts. Nor, sadly, to we share our own.

Tonight is Convivium. Every other Wednesday Mosaic Nashville’s launch team gathers together to feast, not on food, but on words. Each other’s words. It’s a time to live together, to dine together at the table of our God. Where His Word and our words come together in a glorious feast that satisfies the soul’s hunger and thirst for true community.

We don’t get it right all the time. Sometimes our souls walk away still thirsting. Sometimes our hearts walk away bruised. But we’re a convivium of imperfect humans, so how can we expect our relationships with each other to be perfect?

Tonight I go to Convivium with a very deep soul hunger. The last few days have left me raw inside; beat up, wiped out, and sad. Very sad. Tears roll for no immediate reason. Please, God, let this evening be Your time. Let it be a true Convivium, what it was designed by You to be: a place where I, and every other soul-hungry teammate, can feast at Your table.

“Come, all you who are thirsty, come to the waters; and you who have no money, come, buy and eat! Come, buy wine and milk without money and without cost. Why spend money on what is not bread, and your labor on what does not satisfy? Listen, listen to me, and eat what is good, and your soul will delight in the richest of fare. Give ear and come to me; hear me, that your soul may live.” — Isa 55:1-3