Our Church (and probably yours too)

We go to church. We go often. We go because we are trying to love Jesus and this is a part of the few ways we know how. We want to be around other Christian people. We want to learn with them and worship with them. We want to get to know them better. 

This is hard. But we were reminded recently that we can't do church without other people. And beyond that, I'm hesitant to try being a Christian without other people. You miss something. You don't have the same accountability. You don't have the relationships and the discussions and the involvement in something bigger, something attempting to show the bigness of God.

But we are a group of very different people. So different. And this is good, wonderful even, necessary, and, ultimately, unavoidable. It means that we don't always see eye to eye. We don't always agree. We don't always have the same ideas. We don't always pursue the same things. And if we're not traveling in the same direction, then we start to pull apart. 

I am a grumpy person. I get irritated easily by other people. Some days I try really hard to not do this. This means I have to stop, think and reply more slowly. More openly. I need more understanding. More selflessness. More thoughtfulness. More often than not, I do not. I rant. I tell people  how much I don't like someone, some idea, some action. I get upset. I threaten to leave. I growl. I throw my hands up. I shake my head.

I am not patient with anyone over the age of 10. And so attempting to get along with 100 plus people who are over the age of 10 often feels a little impossible. Really impossible. So many ideas, personalities and seemingly little direction right now. 

My hope is that the new group leading our church has passion and their ideas can come into fruition. That we can back them up and go with them, even if we're grumpy and impersonal people. And that we can show the world that we can be better than those grumpy and impersonal people we are. That we can overcome that impulse and we can love. We can love that idea that wasn't ours. That project that doesn't fit with our vision. That person who is not our cup of tea. 

If we stopped and remembered that we're all joining together in a building, a park a home, for the same paramount reason, maybe, just maybe, we can do something wonderful together. We can move together and grow together. We can get a small step closer to being what a community of God-fearing, Jesus-crazy people should be. We can show the world a tiny glimpse of who God is and of the love He showed us.

And possibly I can start be thankful that I'm not the only idiot floundering in this big world with a bad attitude and silly ideas.