Where Have We been?

So much time has gone by since my last posting!  The rush of events leading up to my ordination just overwhelmed my ability to keep up with making new posts, and I started to let the time slip by.  Soon I was embarrassed about not having made any recent posts, and I thought I should have something very profound to say when I actually started up again.

But so much time had passed, that nothing seemed profound enough.  So I just didn't post anything.

That strikes me as not very different than the way many people begin avoiding going to church.  We miss a few weeks, and then begin to think that we don't have a good enough reason for having missed those weeks, and we avoid going back to face any questions about where we've been.  Pretty soon, the memory of what we liked about going to church begins to fade.  We can't remember the feeling of inspiration, the feeling of pure exhilaration in praising God with friends, and all we can remember is our embarrassment.  We imagine that others will look at us with disapproval if we fail to show up.  If we run into church members at the grocery story, we avoid looking at them.  If they see us first, and they ask us how we've been doing, or tell us that they miss seeing us, we assume we are being judged unfavorably.  The truth is, we're probably just missed, as absent friends are always missed.

The easiest way to get back into the "church habit," really, is just to jump back in.  Just get up and go to church some random week.  Don't offer any reason for past absence, or just say, "Oh, no good reason, really."  And almost instantly, the fun of being welcomed back will take over.  No one will remember why you were gone, they'll just be happy to see you again.  Try it!  I know this works, because I 've been there.