This is a true story from my life. —Gene Mason

Monday, October 28, 2019, is a memorable date in my life. About 1:00 p.m. on an otherwise uneventful workday, I was sitting in a meeting when a wave of nausea came over me. It was unusual because instead of being in my stomach it was all the way into my chest. I felt lightheaded as well, and so abruptly I stepped out of the meeting and went back to my office. I figured a quick trip to the doc-in-a-box would clear up the odd symptoms.

A friend followed me and asked if everything was okay. I was looking up the number for urgent care and told him everything would be fine and that I had nausea in my chest. He said I didn’t look well. After some insistence, he had a coworker drive me to the emergency room. On the way there I felt worse. I called my wife and told her I was on the way to the hospital with nausea and I would call her back after I found out what was wrong. “Maybe I ate something bad and have food poisoning,” I thought. As we arrived, I stumbled through the doors and sat down at the nurse’s station. Then my arms went numb. “My chest is hurting and I can’t feel my arms,” I said. “Chest pain” is a trigger phrase in an emergency room, and so they sprang into action.

Quickly they took me back and laid me on a gurney and hooked me up for an EKG. The nurse told me to relax and lay still so she could get a reading. A minute later, it seemed like the whole emergency room had surrounded me. A dozen people in scrubs and carts of equipment appeared. An IV in this arm, a shot in the other. May we take off your shirt? Are you allergic to any medications?

“What does the EKG say?” I asked the nurse nearby. “Oh baby,” she said in a calm, sweet voice, “You’re having a heart attack.”

I would have panicked, but immediately behind the nurse was a doctor who came up to me and said something I will never forget. “Mr. Mason, everything will be okay, you’re not going to die. In fact, you’re in the very best place for this to happen.”

And he was right. I was surrounded by people who knew what to do in case of a heart attack. They had all the equipment. All the right medications. They were all trained and experienced and moved about the ER like a well-oiled machine. What for me was a crisis, for them was routine. One floor above my head was a cardiac ICU with the best surgeons and recovery team. The next morning, I would have triple-bypass surgery, and spend a week in their excellent care. As I write this and you read it, you know now that the story has a happy ending. During one of the most frightening moments of my life, I was in the very best place for it to happen.

In this way life is a lot like real estate. When it comes right down to it, it’s location, location, location.There’s another location that’s especially meaningful to me, though not as specific as the emergency room. And it started quite a bit before my time. You’ll find it in the book of Acts, chapter 2. Here we see a picture of the early church, just after Jesus had gone to heaven and left His apostles on earth to carry on. It’s an amazing place as you can see in verses 42-47:

“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. Every day they continued to meet together in the temple courts. They broke bread in their homes and ate together with glad and sincere hearts, praising God and enjoying the favor of all the people…” There’s a word toward the beginning of verse 42 that I think is very important: fellowship.

A fellowship is more than just a group of like-minded people. It’s not a word we use much today outside of academic or religious circles. Acts 2 shows us a deeper meaning. The fellowship of believers was united. They encouraged each other. They shared their resources to meet needs. Now this wasn’t a commune or socialist experiment—that’s not what “everything in common” means. Rather these were people going about their lives and work, but at the same time looking out for one another, helping each other as the opportunity arose. They were optimistic, friendly, hopeful. They learned from the Scriptures and from each other. They continued their religious practices in the temple.

We live in an age where self-interest has replaced common interest. So this idea of a fellowship is becoming more foreign in our culture. Often, I read modern advice for getting ahead, and it’s all about hustle, self-determination. Teamwork is okay, sure, but only insomuch as it benefits the individual members. The idea that there is safety, security, personal growth in a trusting group of like-minded people—well, it seems a dated concept.

What holds a fellowship together? It’s more than just common ideas or beliefs. In that sense we’d be nothing more than political parties, a fickle shared ideology at best. No, the truest fellowships are those not of shared beliefs, but shared faith. And with that faith, a shared purpose. A fellowship is a people of like mind, living in like faith, for a shared purpose. And if you are a part of a true fellowship, it’s a powerful place in which to base your life.

As we wade through this interesting time in our culture, so much of what lies ahead is unpredictable. It may not be a heart attack for you, but life will happen. You’ll face challenges at work and home. Relationships that are broken, decisions that must be made. Misunderstandings and outright disagreements. A child that goes astray. A parent that you must make decisions for. In marriage, at home, at work—you’ll be called upon to lead through calm and crisis, through serenity and the storms. Let me ask you, are you in the very best place for life to happen?

Friday Morning Men’s Fellowship is a place to develop your leadership. To be mentored by other men. To find good advice and a listening ear. You will find men striving to be their best and spurring you on to do the same. And when life happens, you will find wise counsel, a chorus of helping hands, brothers who really care. When a part of life starts to unravel—and it will—FMMF is the very best place to be when it happens. FMMF is an encouragement when life is together, but it is absolutely essential when it comes apart.

In my heart attack experience there are some people who have become my personal heroes. Dr. Casey, who said those most important and memorable words to me. Dr. Harvey, who performed my surgery. And of course a 25-year-old Venezuelan named Alex Valverde. Alex wasn’t a doctor or nurse, nor did he have any expertise when it came to medicine. But he did something heroic for me that every man reading this can do for his family, friends and coworkers.

Alex brought me to the very best place for a heart attack to happen. Alex was the one who drove me to the emergency room. And so too can you be an influence on those around you when you bring them to FMMF. There are men in your sphere of influence who need the powerful and practical relationships that a true fellowship can provide. Start with your family—your brothers and sons and nephews. Then think about your coworkers, your employees, men in your community.

If you think about what you can give another man as a leader that will impact his life profoundly, the idea of a fellowship, a place in which to find the resources he will need when life happens, is among the most valuable things you can possibly bestow. Let me encourage you, today, to think about someone you know who needs the right location—that place of fellowship where men have everything in common, glad and sincere hearts, and share with one another as they have need. Then go beyond inviting them. Bring them with you this Friday to FMMF. It is the very best place for them to be when life happens.

Cover photo: Shutterstock