Church

I've been thinking about "church" a lot lately,
how the very place designed to bring people to God has hurt some people so badly that they all together run from religion,
how friends and I can grow up in the same faith and even the same building and have completely different experiences,
how what some people see as a cult others see as devotion,
how different families of my home church had vastly different Christian cultures than my family or school did,
how some people respond well to structural faith and others need more freedom in relationship,
how I need a balance of both,
how we ornatly decorate sanctuaries yet fill those sanctuaries with broken people and then expect people to feel comfortable coming on Sundays in their brokenness and not feel pressured to look more put together,
how my friends have fallen through the cracks,
how I have fallen through the cracks in a lot of ways too yet eneded up just fine and stronger even in my walk of faith,
how silly some denominational differences are to me,
how problematic different elements of different churches I've attended are,
how loudly the church at large stands for some causes yet silently hides from others,
how churches still bring me peace, how churches still care and give and go,
how old hymns ringing in rafters tie me with saints of the past,
how new songs bring biblical and practical blessing to my soul,
how strong and sound preaching has the ability to both comfort and convict me,
how ornate churches reflect the importance and beauty of space for corporately and individually meeting with God,
how church communities are chosen, found, and built,
how the church is a broken human institution and often a poor reflection of an unbroken and healing God,
how beautiful it is when churches recognize their flaws and seek reconciliation,
how the support of the church can be seen through the love of one member to another as well as the whole body to the community around it,
and how church should be a warm and welcome place of growth and truth and peace and love and struggle and pain and song and scripture and family and hope.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Human Nature & Divine Creator: Provision, Power, and Pride

A snowday Luke 4 reflection-- When Jesus goes into the wilderness, after John baptizes him, he is full of the Holy Spirit. As he is in the wilderness, the devil tempts him by targeting 3 specific things that we all as humans are drawn to: provision, power, and pride. Jesus, the same man who as a boy ran to the temple of his Father to learn the scriptures, now full of the Spirit too, combats each temptation with scripture. What struck me most were those 3 temptations: provision, power, and pride. 1. We as people have a desire to have provisions, for survival and beyond that for comfort. Jesus counters by pointing himself (and throigh reading, us) back to God as the source for humanity's deepest need. 2. We want control- of our lives, of our surpundings, of others even. We want money, power, security, respect, even dominion in our world. Jesus counters by calling himself first and foremost a servant of God, not a king of peoples. Furthermore, he (by extension, we) is to adore in...
Read more

Healing || six months

Image
"A friend loves at all times, and a brother is born for adversity." Proverbs 17:17 Six months ago, God healed me. That's right, you heard me.  My thought for today was to sit down with a cup of tea, put on some instrumental worship music, and finally write out the full story of how God healed me. Every tear, every bump along the way, every thread of Grace that has connected my story so far and woven me into God's crazy unfolding plan for my life.  But, I have decided that it would be wiser to wait, as this story is one better told in person.  So please, ask me!  I wish to tell any and everyone the honest miracle that The Lord of Love has worked in my heart, mind, and knee. I'm going to try to keep this brief, so I'm omitting a lot of details. It may seem like a lot, but trust me--there is so much more to share about who God is and who I am because of that. (Again, just ask!) -- Long story short, two and a half years ago, I had a life-c...
Read more

Resurrection Reflection

Close your eyes for a moment~ Breathe in, and breathe out. Think of everything wrong you have ever done.  If you're like me, you do this often.  Too often.  Think of it all, starting when you were young. Every white lie. Every swear. Every angry outburst and bitter inward comment. Every lustful thought, word, or action. Every selfish deed and prideful belief. All of it.  Every. Last. Sin. Think of everything you probably will do. Hard to fathom, isn't it? The amount of wrong we are capable of doing?   Breathe in again, and out. Think of Jesus on the cross, the nail in his feet pulling as he breaths in and the nails in his hands ripping as he breathes out.  Think of all of that wrong you've done, all of that wrong you are capable of, on his shoulders and digging into his brow like the thorns that your sins are. For you .  It's all for you.  Watch as he breathes his last, crying "It is Finished." Watch as a spear pierces his side, as Mary weeps a...
Read more