Who Are Your Friends? The Journey Will Tell You

Ever been on a long road trip? Two days to Columbus with a couple of friends is easy. Twelve days to Montana with six people and a campsite is another story. The longer you travel and the more people you bring, the harder it is to stay polite, and the harder it is to ignore the things that get on your nerves. There’s no faking it on a long journey. Sometimes the journey is where you find out who your friends really are.

Altered Church is in a series on our core values, and this week is about Deep Belonging. Mark 2 is a great place to teach this value and what it means for us.

Five Friends and a Crowd

Picture five friends who’ve known each other since childhood. One of them is paralyzed, and the other four feed him, carry him, and help him get around town. When they hear Jesus is back in Capernaum, they pick up his mat and go. The trip isn’t far, but the streets are packed with thousands of people. They push inch by inch through yelling and pointing, and when they finally reach the front, Jesus is inside a tiny house with a crowd jammed up against the door.

This is the moment it would have made sense to quit. Set the mat down, say “we tried,” offer some thoughts and prayers, and head home. They don’t.

“Since they could not get him to Jesus because of the crowd, they made an opening in the roof above Jesus by digging through it and then lowered the mat the man was lying on. When Jesus saw their faith, he said to the paralyzed man, “Son, your sins are forgiven.””

They climb to the roof, tear through straw and timber with their bare hands, and lower their friend down in front of everyone. The journey doesn’t stop when they hit an obstacle.

More Than They Came For

Imagine standing there after all of that. You came for healing, and Jesus starts with forgiveness. That’s wonderful, but you’re probably a little confused. Then it gets frustrating, because religious teachers in the room are muttering that only God can forgive sins. Jesus turns to them and asks which is easier, to tell a man his sins are forgiven or to tell him to get up and walk. If he has the power to heal, he has the power to forgive.

“I tell you, get up, take your mat and go home.” He got up, took his mat and walked out in full view of them all.

What those friends got was better than what they hoped for: physical healing and spiritual renewal in the same moment. And because none of them gave up, they got to experience it together. All five walked out of that house.

Belonging Means Staying on the Journey

That’s what deep belonging looks like. It isn’t a smile and a hug on Sunday, it’s a commitment to stay in it. To keep carrying each other toward Jesus, knowing healing is found in him. It’s the kind of community where there’s always someone to laugh and cry with, no one faces a death or a divorce or an illness alone, no one goes hungry or cold, and people of every story and background feel seen and known. The early church lived it.

“They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and to fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer… All the believers were together and had everything in common. They sold property and possessions to give to anyone who had need.”

It sounds wonderful, and it’s hard, because we already belong to so many things that are easier than this.

Look at Your Calendar

Here’s a quick test. Open the calendar on your phone and ask what you actually belong to. Do those things give you what Jesus promised community would? I’m not asking you to rank anything or make church the most important thing in your life. I’m asking whether deep belonging has any room in your life at all. Real belonging doesn’t come from signing up for something. It comes from time, trust, endurance, working through differences, and building together. But everything has to start somewhere.

What the Crowd Actually Saw

At the end of the story, the crowd says, “We have never seen anything like this!” What amazed them? Jesus forgiving sins, Jesus healing, the friends’ devotion. Yes, all of it. But notice that the crowd never witnesses the power of Jesus unless the friends take the journey to find him. Our journey toward Jesus together is what reveals his power to the world.

Why can’t that be us? A community that fights through the crowd, carries each other, and unleashes the power of Jesus in a way that makes everyone say, “We have never seen anything like this!”

Three honest steps:

Open your calendar and find one place to make room for real community.

Think of someone who needs carrying right now, and decide to show up.

Stay in a relationship one more week when walking away would be easier.