Skip to main content

Five Minute Friday: Worship





I have thought about finding a place to worship for so long. Like years. When I got divorced 5 years ago, my search turned into a need for a place to heal. I visited my friends' large, charismatic church. They loved it there and encouraged me to join them. It was held in a converted factory, not your average setting for worship, but I gave it a shot. It never felt right. The word there was uplifting and the work they did in the community was tremendous but I never felt like I fit in. I felt like I wasn't the right kind of person to be a member there, I couldn't check the right boxes on their visitor's form. I wasn't married with kids.

One Sunday I decided to be brave and make a solo visit to a church near my home. Even though I was raised Baptist and the last church I attended regularly was Lutheran, I wanted to see what this Methodist church was all about. I loved that it was part of my neighborhood and that like the church I grew up in, it was within walking distance of my house. The minute I crossed the threshold, I knew it was right. As scary as it was to step in there by myself, sitting there in that pew without anyone by my side I didn't feel alone. I felt God's presence in that place like I had never felt it before in a house of worship. I felt like God was giving me a big hug and saying welcome. Worship here with me.

I love my church. I look forward to Sunday mornings, to be in the beautiful sanctuary with the awe-inspiring stained glass windows and the rock walls that were hand placed there by members of the congregation some 70 years ago. I have also sat in that sanctuary on a Tuesday or Thursday during my lunch hour, the space lit only by the sun coming through those windows, searching for that hug from God to tell me that things will be all right. It is in this place of worship that I found hope. Hope that has alluded me for years. No one has ever asked whether I'm single or married, if I have kids or not, they have just welcomed me into their community. No boxes to check, no category to fit in, they have simple passed the peace of God to me at a time when I needed to feel that peace more than anything. It is here that I am learning to worship life again and to trust that in worshiping God, I will find the healing I've been searching for.
Labels:

Comments

  1. AnonymousAugust 30, 2013 at 10:59 AM

    It's amazing how the right church is so apparent when you walk in. I've felt that and it is so wonderful....it's like coming home.

    ReplyDelete
  2. UnknownAugust 30, 2013 at 11:01 AM

    Dear Andrea
    I love the way you followed our Lord Jesus' leading to the place He knew you would find Him! I also could not fit into the charismatic denomination.
    Blessings XX
    Mia

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Five Minute Friday: Roots

Lisa-Jo Baker (lisajobaker.com) hosts a weekly event on her blog called "Five Minute Friday". The rules are 1. Write for 5 minutes flat – no editing, no over thinking, no backtracking. 2. Link back here and invite others to join in. 3. And then absolutely, no ifs, ands or buts about it, you need to visit the person who linked up before you & encourage them in their comments. Seriously. That is, like, the rule. And the fun. And the heart of this community.. So here's my first try at this. Today's topic was Roots. Roots – I think about my grandparents who lived on a farm until my grandfather’s diabetes worsened and they moved to a town with a hospital nearby. My father still says he wished he could have kept that farm. I think of my grandmother who was a widow for 20 years. Every year she would stand over my PaPa’s grave, wishing she was with him. I think of my parents, a product of those grandparents, how hard my father worked to put 2 girls through...
10 comments
Read more

Five Minute Friday: Brave

Right now at this point in my life, it feels like the bravest thing I should be doing is trusting God's plan for me. It is so scary to hand everything over to Him and trust that it will all be alright. Or maybe what I should test my bravery on is trusting His timing.  I do trust that He has a good plan for me, I just wish He'd hurry up and reveal it to me. It's been six long years of waiting to see what good will come from my divorce. Six years of feeling broken, worthless, and unlovable. I believe with my whole heart that He will make good from what was meant to harm me, He will give me double for my trouble, but I want my beauty for ashes RIGHT NOW! I also need to find the bravery to believe the good things people tell me about me. This has been a really hard week for me and through their words and their shows of concerns, I know that people care about me but I can't find the courage to turn that into self-love. When I look in the mirror, I still see ug...
8 comments
Read more

Five Minute Friday: Time

Five Minute Friday is a writing event that has writers spending five minutes writing on the same topic and then sharing them at http://katemotaung.com/five-minute-friday/ . This week's word is Time. Sometimes time feels like this, like we are in it. Standing inside it, watching life pass by. It is so easy to get stuck in a time - in our pain, in our hurt. We hear the ache tick away in our head like a giant clock. Time, instead, is a gift. More time with family, more time to accomplish goals, more time to see the world. When you are hurting, it seems like time takes forever. One day turns into another day, turns into another day. When we hate a job, the five days of time that make up a work week seem to go on forever. But those five days are also a gift. Because these days, a job is not a guarantee. I want to see time as gift, not as a chore. I want to be on the other side of it, wishing there was more of it. Making the most of every hour, minute, and second instead of...
6 comments
Read more