Sunday morning service

Sometimes Rob and I find it difficult to make it to church. There is a Saturday evening service we like, but it doesn't always work out. Then there is the standard Sunday morning, but that has its own problems, if for instance we want to go surfing (which is best in the morning). Some weekends we are bad about communicating what we are expecting to do. We are often out of town. Sometimes we just don't feel like going.

Because of our organizational inaptitude, this morning we made a last minute decision to go to the church nearest to our house, a Methodist church one block away. It is a small church with an even smaller congregation. The choir wore robes and sang traditional hymns with a little bit of sway. The minister was an African American woman who greeted us with hugs and insisted we come back.

The sermon was about the role of spiritual discernment or "sitting with Jesus" in the midst of education. A different type of topic, surprisingly specific. She used the Amaeus (sp?) Road story from Luke. It was very encouraging to me for the literal reason that I have been struggling with school for the last few days. "Am I making the right decisions? Can I make it through the rest of the program without falling apart? Is this the best field for me? Will I ever be a good therapist?" The minister's talk reminded me that even the details of the life can have profound spiritual meaning. Education, the forming of intellect and vocation, is particularly important from a spiritual perspective. It reminded me that I am not filling my mind for myself alone, but so that I can speak, as one who is taught, a word that might bring healing to my fellow human. Thinking about my training as an activity that God is involved with allows me to breath easier. It is not all up to me.

I know some of you reading this may think that faith in general and church in specific is a crutch or a sham or waste of time. I've had my own journey through all those thoughts. Most simply what I've concluded is well expressed by Anne Lamott in the book Traveling Mercies:

"Most of the people I know who have what I want - which is to say, purpose, heart, balance, gratitude, joy - are people with a deep sense of spirituality. They are people in community, who pray, or practice their faith- people banding together to work on themselves and for human rights. They follow a brighter light than the glimmering of their own candle; they are part of something beautiful" (p. 100).

I felt that today, in the tiny group of people who looked different than me, who I had never met before. I felt convicted of trying too hard to read with only the dim light of myself. I needed the brighter light of other followers to help me see more clearly. Thank you.