DailyConnections.net

 

I know a fellow who eschews church.  “Just a building,” he says.  “I find God in the Wisconsin woods.” Well, I enjoy solitude and nature, as well, but I gain strength from the community of faithful, especially within the House of God.  In fact, I’ve grown to love church — the rituals, the service and the very place itself, but especially the people … the clay-footed, sometimes broken people who have figured out that there is no medicine, no well-written book, no fine-vintage wine, no place of nature’s grandeur … nothing that can compare. 

 

Last Friday evening, I dragged my whining, complaining self to a gathering of a very special faith community that had welcomed me about two years ago.  As we sat in church and prayed and sang (yes, on a Friday night!), the pain and ego-centric anxiety (always, always, the ego) dissolved, surrounded by a group of men and women intent of serving the Lord — with openness, honesty, faith, doubts, worries, pain and pure joy — as best they can.  Nothing changed outside, but faith as real as the pew in which I sat filled the air.   

 

My point:  We were not meant to fly solo in this world.  The community of faith strengthens us.  Savor it.  Cherish it.  Enjoy it.  – jri

 

“I rejoiced with those who said to me,

            –    King David

                   (Psalm 122:1-2)