I Want MORE!

People go to church for many different reasons:

1. Social Hour. (Yes, believe it or not!)
2. Friendship
3. Education
4. Singing songs
5. Get out of the house
6. Everyone else does it.
7. The mall doesn’t open till noon anyway
8. Meet with Jesus.
9. Pray
10. Experience God
11. To serve.
12. To Preach.
13. To teach.
14. Escape
15. …


That’s just a few off the top of my head…I’ve been for many of these reasons myself.

When I go to church these days (granted it’s not as often as I should)…I go for more! I go to experience the very real presence of God and to worship Him in a corporate setting. Honestly, I also go to be recharged for the week. Sort of like a ‘spirit jump-start’. I’m hoping to really encounter the Spirit of the Living God each week!

I am not a particularly social person, so I don’t go to visit or to make or meet friends. I’m just not made that way. But church is one of the places I go to communicate with God… with others or alone.

I’m sure it’s my traditional roots and the idealism I hold from days gone by…but there is at least ONE thing I love about those OLD church buildings on each city or town corner with the giant steeples and the stained glass doors and windows…they were always open (or so it seemed). You could go up to that magnificent door and pull on its heavy handle and enter a place of refuge. You enter the building silently as every step left its audible mark. You could find a calming, peaceful atmosphere. It was ornate and full of ‘awe’.

I’m searching for that ‘door’ these days. I’m searching for refuge…but the doors seemed closed, locked, chained and sometimes nailed shut! I know (based on my own experience) that I can find and commune with God anywhere, even the most unlikely of places (let your mind wander where it will). God is everywhere. Think of where Jesus went!

There is just something really special about those old church buildings. The giant pipes from the organ surround the cathedral ceiling all the way around. What is even more interesting is I am not truly a traditionalist. As a matter of fact I rather prefer the house churches that are trying to blossom regionally, over the traditional church setting. Yet when I walk into an old church…my heart stills a bit, my nerves ease, and I find myself in a truly Holy place.

Am I romanticizing something I want church to be? Yes, perhaps a bit. Am I missing something I only briefly touched the pulse of? Probably. Is my soul yearning for more? Absolutely! It’s no surprise that I’m experiencing these things in the midst of some pretty major changes in my life in the very near future. It is surprising to put into words where I find comfort, and what brings me peace; old churches (and chocolate of course)!

And so I sit here today, Tuesday, waiting, wondering and praying that God would lead each step, each word, my very heartbeat towards Him. That His step, His word, His heartbeat would be mine.

Have a synchronized Tuesday!