Sunday, November 09, 2008

Sundays are not RED, unless you are in that liturgical season...

And this Sunday I shall attend.....

A Roman Catholic church with Sally and whoever else decides to join us. We leave in a few minutes!

Let me say, however, that when I first got here, I didn't go to church for a few weeks. The city was too big, too scary, and everyone and everything was new. But in the past few weeks, I have really enjoyed going to all kinds of different churches. It actually started off with the Greek Orthodox church. Then for Reformation sunday I went to Holy Trinity and loved it. Last week I was with the Tyce man watching him get water poured on his head (he slept through - success!!). And this week, I'm going to a Roman Catholic.

Something else that has changed, I guess, is my actually enjoying attending church. I'll be honest and say that it is difficult to go some, er most, days. I wanted to sleep in or I wanted to stay in pajamas. Or I didn't want to deal with fake smiles. I didn't want to deal with my own thoughts about how the sermon wasn't up to par or the bread was Hawaiian bread (yum) for communion and that was both fantastic and frightening. It was so easy to cast a critical eye, especially since I was off to seminary. I kept thinking how I could and would do it differently.

I think it has been particular comments that have really been changing my view. I'm not sure who said the first one, but I think it was the W's friend, Michael, that if you go to church seeking God, he will meet you there. No matter where it is. I love that. It is completely true. If you are going because you are supposed to, chances are you won't get very much out of it. The second one was here at LSTC during chapel orientation. He said we had to be forgiving of each other and open to the different ways of doing things. He said he knew that we'd be thinking how we could have done it better. So put those thoughts aside and just sit back and experience God.

So, friends, I'm off to experience God. And no matter where you are, I hope you get a taste of his presence in your day, too.

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