Sunday, August 05, 2007

Thoughts on a Church-less Sunday Morning

So, this morning was the first morning that I've not gone to church on a Sunday morning in roughly 6 years. The last time I skipped church, I "just skipped" church for five years. I was a Chreaster during that time. I've missed church a couple of times since then, for various mission trips and camps (but I was with church people then) and once when I had the flu. But today was the first Sunday of a five-week hiatus from church. And I'll probably even go back for one of those Sundays, as it is promotion Sunday and I can't in good conscience skip commotion Sunday just because. But today was my first Church-less Sunday.

I've thought a lot about why I'm taking these Sundays off, other than the recovery reasons. I probably could have at least sat through service because it's just sitting, but I didn't. I purposely decided to get with God without going to His house today. (It's a big big house, with lots and lots of room...)

See, the thing is, when you become "involved" in Church beyond just getting there on Sunday at 9:29am and sitting in the back of the room and hearing the songs and the pastor and going home, Church becomes a totally different thing. Church transitions from the building to the body. So Sunday mornings become different. And the more you serve, and the more you interact with the Body, the more busy you become at church.

And busyness is not always good. It's not ya'll. Sometimes it just sucks the life right out of the body. And that's one of the reasons I'm not going for five whole weeks even though I can really only justify two or three of them at most. Because I need some life back into my God-life. That didn't make sense. Sorry. Blame it on the antibiotic. Or the rain. That was falling down. Or Milli Vanilli.

Anyway, I spent today with just some me and God time, and will probably do that again next weekend, but then I'm planning on going to a couple of other churches in the area, because you can't have a true relationship with God without corporate worship because He designed us that way, and sometimes He chooses to reveal Himself through others, and you can't have that if you aren't around others, but if I go back to "my" body, then I am afraid I will get sucked right back into the busyness, plus a lot of the "Where have you been-ness?" and I want to experience how some other bodies do it before I go back to mine. (How's THAT for a run-on sentence! My professors would be SO proud!)

I have more thoughts on this, but I've rambled on enough, and already made one Milli-Vanilli reference, which is a clear indication that I need to stop. And I'll have next Sunday to talk about this topic, too. And just FYI, God and I looked at Samuel, Saul, and David today. By Ourselves.

3 comments:

  1. Anonymous10:02 PM CDT

    i love your hunkaburninlove. i come back to the blog just to look at him. mrs. bowe

    ReplyDelete
  2. Eugene Peterson once said "Busyness is the enemy of spirituality."

    If you haven't read his devotional book on the life of David entitled "Leap Over A Wall" you've really missed out on lots of little spiritual nuggets...

    ReplyDelete
  3. Thanks Brent! Now I have to RUSH out to Barnes and Noble and I probably will not get out of there with just one book and will end up buying something totally off topic because I know deep down in my heart that the best place to go to buy that kind of book will be to Family Christian bookstore, but I don't like Christian bookstores that much anymore and now I will have to go to TWO bookstores in which I will not get out of either without purchasing a couple of books. You're going to send me to the poorhouse Brent. I blame you.

    All kidding aside, I knew there was a proper ending to the "busyness is" part I started writing, but I was too lazy to look it up. Thanks for the tip!

    ReplyDelete

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