My Epiphany
I came back to church because I wanted to.
There are a lot of other things I could add to that statement. Other things that I could use instead of that statement. Those other things are only excuses and cover-ups to the real reason I came back to church.
I came back because I wanted to.
It would have been easy to lie to my parents and tell them that I was going to church while I hung out at Starbucks instead on a Sunday morning. It also crossed my mind to move out of the house just to get away from their nagging about me finding a church (but economic circumstances were not in my favor at that point).
I hemmed and I hawed and then my mom told me about a past teacher of mine and her husband and the church they had finally started. I decided to give it a shot, certain it would be one of the last times I stepped inside a church instead of going to Starbucks on a Sunday morning.
That one Sunday turned into second Sunday which turned into a third and a fourth . . . and now three years later I'm trying to keep up with a Christian blog, I'm a catechist, I've never felt so in love with Christ or the Church in my life, and I'm proud of becoming an Anglican. The journey was not smooth nor has it been easy.
Father Justin once asked me during a conversation we were having why I returned to church when it seems normal (and trendy even) for people my age to leave Bible-believing churches for those who water down the gospel or quit religion all together. I, of course, gave him the story of nagging parents telling me about the church and me arriving and me not leaving . . . but afterwards as I thought about the conversation more and thought about my response, I realized how unsatisfied I was with my own answer. It was correct in technical details, but not true in why I kept returning and not just going to Starbucks on a Sunday morning.
I came back because I wanted to.
I came back because I missed Jesus.
Ever since I came back, and once I became open to Christ showing up in my life, He has shown up in ways I never expected; healing my physically and emotionally and spiritually. Where there once was fear there is courage, and were there once was apathy there is now feeling.
Now within a week I will be, for the first time, working on the ministry team of the women's retreat where I first began to experience this healing. Encounter Weekends are that. Places to Encounter God. Come hungry, leave changed is the motto. I came starving and left fed.
This is part of the glorious epiphany of Christ in my own life. As Epiphany begins and leads us further into our walk with Christ for the year, how does God manifest Himself to you? Are you willing to look in the most unexpected places for Him? Are you willing to let Him show up in His time in His way?
Wise men still seek Him. I surely hope I'm one of them.
There are a lot of other things I could add to that statement. Other things that I could use instead of that statement. Those other things are only excuses and cover-ups to the real reason I came back to church.
I came back because I wanted to.
It would have been easy to lie to my parents and tell them that I was going to church while I hung out at Starbucks instead on a Sunday morning. It also crossed my mind to move out of the house just to get away from their nagging about me finding a church (but economic circumstances were not in my favor at that point).
I hemmed and I hawed and then my mom told me about a past teacher of mine and her husband and the church they had finally started. I decided to give it a shot, certain it would be one of the last times I stepped inside a church instead of going to Starbucks on a Sunday morning.
That one Sunday turned into second Sunday which turned into a third and a fourth . . . and now three years later I'm trying to keep up with a Christian blog, I'm a catechist, I've never felt so in love with Christ or the Church in my life, and I'm proud of becoming an Anglican. The journey was not smooth nor has it been easy.
Father Justin once asked me during a conversation we were having why I returned to church when it seems normal (and trendy even) for people my age to leave Bible-believing churches for those who water down the gospel or quit religion all together. I, of course, gave him the story of nagging parents telling me about the church and me arriving and me not leaving . . . but afterwards as I thought about the conversation more and thought about my response, I realized how unsatisfied I was with my own answer. It was correct in technical details, but not true in why I kept returning and not just going to Starbucks on a Sunday morning.
I came back because I wanted to.
I came back because I missed Jesus.
Ever since I came back, and once I became open to Christ showing up in my life, He has shown up in ways I never expected; healing my physically and emotionally and spiritually. Where there once was fear there is courage, and were there once was apathy there is now feeling.
Now within a week I will be, for the first time, working on the ministry team of the women's retreat where I first began to experience this healing. Encounter Weekends are that. Places to Encounter God. Come hungry, leave changed is the motto. I came starving and left fed.
This is part of the glorious epiphany of Christ in my own life. As Epiphany begins and leads us further into our walk with Christ for the year, how does God manifest Himself to you? Are you willing to look in the most unexpected places for Him? Are you willing to let Him show up in His time in His way?
Wise men still seek Him. I surely hope I'm one of them.
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