A Specific Time and Place

"She felt that faith need not be connected to a presence at any time or place."
This is true, I think - to an extent. Someone washed ashore on a desert island does not become any less of a Christian because he or she cannot make it to church. Neither do people who live in areas of religious persecution or people have to work Sunday mornings to feed a family. Neither do people who have taken a Sunday off for a vacation at their lake cabin.
Neither do they grow - at least at the same rate. Certainly, introspection is an integral part of one's spirituality. But I think that exchange is, too. About a year and a half ago, my family and I began attending Jacob's Well, a church in South Minneapolis. The messages were not pretentious or preachy, but rather honest and relevant. I had considered myself to have a decent faith for some time, but hearing others discuss theirs solidified everything for me. It was in a way inspiring to share faith with others, and being a part of a community has been rewarding on many levels.
I wonder what would happen to somebody who had moderate faith but was placed in a community that had none or discouraged it - I think that the conformity could stifle it. And I think that a church community does the reverse.
So for me, Sunday, 10:30 A.M., 4645 4th Ave. S. - a specific time and place - is important.

Me

In writing my last post, I (knowingly) ran the risk of sounding as though I am some sort of living saint, bemoaning how far behind me the rest of the Christian population is with their faith. Au contraire. I think that part of my ability to sense defects with our faith is the fact that I’ve experienced them myself.

As a younger child, it was difficult for me to grasp the concept of God because of the lack of plain, concrete “evidence” around me. And while my mother is and has been a very spiritual person, I was raised outside of any church community. As I understand it, she felt that faith need not be connected to a presence at any time or place. Furthermore, it was not something we really discussed.

Yet as I got a bit older, I visited various churches from time to time with extended family and friends, and I began to pick up the messages of God’s love for us and our obligation to extend that love on Earth as well as we are able. I can’t say that there was a particular moment of epiphany, but gradually, it all began to solidify and make sense to me. Even though my life is not always easy or carefree, things in my life constantly seem to turn out for the best and consequentially, I have developed a sense of security – that I am cared for by God.

I think that this order extends across the world and history. Things like the Hagia Sophia or Montreal's Notre Dame, Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony, Stradivarius violins, Emily Brontë’s Wuthering Heights, or paintings by Rembrandt, Monet, Renoir, and VanGogh are not from a world of coincidental particle collision and genetic mutation – but rather, serve as a testament to a divine influence and aegis.

The Raison D'être

A blog is added to cyberspace every two seconds, bringing the total to about 50 million. In that case, it seems difficult to believe that another one is necessary. But I think it is.

As I go out into the world, I seem to meet two kinds of people. The first has varying but limited interest in religion. Some seem to shy away from the mass mind control of an institution that dictates what and how people think. Some might hate perceived bureaucracy. Others may have had an affiliation in the past, but didn’t connect with the message or community.

On the other side of the fence are people who have faith, but possess it in an empty, blind, or otherwise defective way. Some of these people hide behind their religion, using it as an excuse to judge and discriminate. Others have subscribed to a particular denomination’s dogma and attend church because they feel they ought to.

In the end, it seems that we have either not enough faith, or have it in the wrong form – perhaps both. In either case, we do not do enough to spread Christ’s love and teachings into the world which, rife with war, poverty, and illness, has great need.

Let us approach membership in a third group: One defined by firm faith, but also a clarity of vision that allows us to see where we can apply that faith and the love that accompanies it in the world around us.