I keep forgetting to mention it here but, Steve and I have actually changed churches. Well, maybe changed isn’t really the appropriate word. Perhaps chosen is a bit better. We’ve finally chosen a church!
As most of you know, I am Catholic and Steve is Protestant. These are our technical labels but really, neither one of us really considers our faith denominational in any way. We love God and God loves us…regardless of what building we spend our Sunday mornings in. That being said though, for nearly five years, we’ve been splitting ourselves between two churches in order to share our faith among both of our religions. We’ve enjoyed both places but we’ve also felt like we could never really commit to either as long as we were trying to commit to both.
We have decided to stop attending my Catholic church and have committed to a more Biblically based teaching church that isn’t really denominational in any way. If they had to, I’m sure that they would say that they fall under the umbrella of the Protestant faith but their joy lies in simply loving God.
It’s hard to say what swayed us one way instead of the other and the decision was especially hard for me because I truly found God in the Catholic Church and the idea of not returning there every week was a struggle for me. But ultimately, I think that it came down to grace and what could help us grow spiritually as a couple.
I’ve been thinking a lot about grace lately because I think it’s something that sadly, our churches are really lacking these days. In my humble opinion, grace is the one thing that Christians should be embracing more than anything else and further more, teaching the world how to bestow it onto to others. Grace is something that I want our son to learn and grace is also something that I want our son to be surrounded with as he grows up in what can be a very unforgiving world. In order to do so though, we must lead by example and provide him with those surroundings.
I personally know a lot of people who would say the church’s lack of grace is the very reason not to belong to it; that it is just one of the many hypocrisies of organized religion but I have to wonder if running at the simple sight of a flawed design or discomfort is really the way to go…if it’s really the way to make the world a better place? I was having a rather heated “discussion” with someone who felt that religion was simply the crutch of a depleting society and wanted to know where God was during the simpler times; during the morning rush or the evening commute home? My immediate thought was that instead of turning your back on religion because you’re not seeing the arms and eyes of grace during your bus trip home at night…why not be the arms and eyes of grace on that bus instead of waiting for it to appear elsewhere? Why not be the smiling face or the person that gives up their seat for someone else? Grace can only exist because we enable it to…
And this brings us back to our decision to switch churches and the role that grace has played in that decision making; the bottom line is that I want to know God. I want to share in that knowing with my husband and I want our son to know God. But I also want to know God’s grace and to be in a position to teach it to my son, at least to the very best of my abilities. I want to be in a place of loving God instead of always trying to please God (which, let’s face it, simply can’t happen!) and I need the proper place to help nurture that growth in me. One place opened its arms of grace to us more than the other. Not to say that grace didn’t exist in both places…but I do believe that it wasn’t being equally practiced in both.
And so after having struggled with the decision for many months, I reminded myself that God can live in many places at one time…including a place that is different from where I first fell in love with Him.
It’s been a couple of months now since we’ve starting attending our new church exclusively and it’s been wonderful. It’s been filled with worship and gratitude and yes…a unified walk towards grace. It’s been a walk that has helped us to recognize love and peace in the most unlikely of circumstances and to appreciate our place and our purpose in this world…even when it can’t stop swirling around us.
For all of the indecision and the struggle to find my place for the devotion I want to give…I am left with only this: I love my church!
1 comment:
I think the important thing is that you are not in religion with God but in relationship with God, therefore it doesn't matter where you go to seek Him.
The Bible commands us to Be in Christ likeness. We will never b Him so as long as we can firmly say that we are doing our best to be as Christ and except th fact that he live than died for us, Than we can safely say we all are Christ Followers and we have a relationship with Him.
It's my opinion too many people get cought up in the "religion" part of it all and thats not whats importanat. We need to believe EVERYTHING our bibles tells us and believe that Christ died for us.
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