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You.  Whoever you are.  Do you work in an office?  Do you work outdoors, moving girders to help build skyscrapers?  Are you in a hospital, healing the sick?  Do you stay at home taking care of children?

Maybe you live 20 miles from the nearest town.  Perhaps you live in the middle of a large city.  You might be recently married or together with someone for twenty years.  

Or maybe you’ve been single for a while.

Whoever you are, join us.  This is an open invitation.

Do you remember your family, your mother and father, on either side of you when you were young?  Nothing could hurt you, because they were always there for you, their goal in life to keep you safe.

We will do the same.  Or perhaps your mother and father weren’t there when you needed them.  Perhaps they were too busy working or paying the bills.  Was your father a little rough with you?  Was your mother moody, rarely able to listen?  Did your parents divorce?  Perhaps you never met your birth parents and were adopted.  Maybe you were raised by two fathers or languished in foster care.

No matter.  We will be there for you.  We will support you and give you love, companionship, acceptance.

Do you remember joking around with friends during high school or college, a group that has long since fallen apart?

Our care will be stronger than theirs.  You will laugh with us, eat with us, drink with us.  We will respect you just as you are.  That is our mission, and your mission is to do the same for any new member.  

The future, my friend, is ours.  Together, there is nothing we cannot accomplish.

But what is a large group without one true companion?  We assure you, you will find him.  Or her.  Or, if you prefer, we can find someone in between.

Within our safe haven, you will meet the person of your dreams.  Envision a person you wished to be with, the one who got away or rejected your advances.  You will find this person.  Or, if you are already with someone you love, you can both join us.  Think of running your hands through your lover’s hair.  The spark that may have died will be relit.  Your lips on the other person’s as you look into the fire at the center, burning for both of you.

For us.

But what is your mission, you may ask?  What is our goal?

It is simple, as I have been telling you all along.  Safety.  

But what does that involve, you ask?  What must I commit?

First, you will help us build.  This goes beyond a physical structure.  We are building a community, a group of people who will protect one another.  We are building bonds and expanding.  We are building peace and closeness, constructing our shared vision brick by brick.

There is one aspect that may prove challenging.  

Sometimes, during the times we gather around the fire for prayer and communion, one member breaks the silence.  It could be any member.  He warns us.  An intruder has been sensed at the perimeter.  The sanctity of our group has been threatened.

No, not simply the sanctity.  Our very existence.  We always ward off threats, because if we didn’t, if we allowed ourselves to be broken apart, all would be lost.  The covenant that we have so carefully kept with each other would be thrown into disarray.

You see, the intruders do not attack us with weapons.  They do not bring knives, or guns, or tanks.  They sow dissent.  Intruders are like neutron bombs, destroying all life but leaving the appearance of an outward structure.  If an intruder infiltrates, the love we share would be corrupted into distrust and hatred.  Families would fall apart.  Leaders could be ousted and even murdered.  Everything that we had built up, sometimes through a lifetime’s dedication, would be reduced to nothing.

You understand the danger of intruders.

But you are now one of us.  We have taken you into our fold, and you have either found your beloved among us or brought another with you to further increase our strength, our community, our shared sense of peace.

But there is an intruder, a usurper.  You have been trained as one of us on how to deal with this problem, to sense the one who is different.  At least one in any group will be able to feel the virus in the system, the deadly parasite that could eat us out from the inside if not properly addressed.

You are in the temple with the fire in the center, part of our group.  Someone has sounded the alarm.  We close our eyes, because intuition is more powerful than sight.  

You breathe deeply, eyes closed.  You feel something in the back of your neck, at the top of your head.  Your alertness is heightened.  You know something is wrong, that someone is threatening the way of life you have taken so long to create, who could lay waste to the entire enterprise, bring you back to your lowest point, when friendship and love were out of reach, when you felt alone, unprotected, at the whim of circumstance, when one small unpredictable event could leave you destitute and desolate.  You worked with us to create this, and someone--or something--is hell-bent on destroying it.

Your arms tense.  Your unconscious is guiding you, leading you to the source of the problem.  You put your arms out in front of you, fingers tingling.  Your hands feel shoulder blades.  You have found the bacterium, the parasite, that which would destroy what we have created.  Eyes still closed, you quickly put your hands around the person’s neck.  There is an ensuing struggle, but you have righteousness, the value of the life you’ve created, on your side.  You grip harder, feeling the heat of the fire to your left.  Your hands still around the neck, you shove the invader into the fire, that which burns and purifies, leaving the world cleansed and pristine again.  You hear screams, the smell of burning flesh.

You open your eyes.  Unfortunately, the invader was the one you loved.  You hear the person’s final screams as he or she is consumed by flames.

We will find you another.  There are many among us, all loving.  We will protect you and keep you safe from foreigners, those who would destroy everything we have built.

We are grateful for your sacrifice and will comfort you in your sadness.  And we promise, you will find new love.

Our ranks will continue to grow.