A point of contention

I've not much been one for 'going to church' of late.  In fact, more than of late..I stepped out of church in a fairly deliberate way about two years ago, having working in ministry and frankly getting a bit over it all. Not to say I was over God, oh no...but it's a bit of a love hate relationship, whereby fellowship (lets see how much Christianese I can squeeze into one post....) was defined by the regular get togethers I had with like minded friends, and prayer seems to be mainly comprised of me ranting and a somewhat stony silence on God's behalf.

That said, I've done my best to maintain at least a distant relationship with Himself, by way of funerals, Christmas services, and children's bedtime prayers.  So it has been quite a change to discover myself quite by chance (or is it.....) back in the company of some of the people I shared church/youth group/bible study/crushes/slightly recalcitrant teen behaviour with.  I even, hold on to your seat, decided to attend church on a Sunday morning a couple of weeks ago - and actually I have to say I rather enjoyed it.  Great music, a challenging and thought provoking sermon by a preacher I almost agreed with, friendly people and a comfy chair.  What more could I ask for!?

I would have said nothing.  And its said that God doesn't give you any more than you can cope with after all.

But everything changes and nothing stays the same.  I have written before about how God likes to talk to me in Hollywood letters.  I'm guessing it's because it takes something that big, at least in my minds eye, to get my attention.  I've had all kinds of words, and almost always I miss the cue, and cannot fathom why a particular word keeps popping up everywhere.  And this year has been no exception.  I was presented with 'content' this time.  But what did it mean?  Was I content? Was I being asked to provide content?  Was I destined for something contentious?

Who knows....but what I do know is that everything that has changed, or come into my life in the past couple of months - in every aspect - has an underlying message:  I need to carefully examine the CONTENT, and I need to be satisfied that the new thing, the changed thing, still allows me to be CONTENT.  Which is not to say that 'stuff' will make me content, nor that I need more 'content' to be content!  But it certainly has made me stop and think about the things that really matter - and what it is that makes me rest easy each night.

How is your content?
Are you content?

omnipotence and other things 8 years understand without asking

We have had a young house guest for the weekend.  Following the success of her younger sisters visit a couple of weeks ago, she asked if she might attend church with us this morning.
I am a somewhat estrwhile attendedee these days - as I work for a Christian organisation as well as being involved with several ministries locally, I often find by Sundays I am rather churched out!
But today i knew there was to be a Christening, and so I was happy to accomodate.
We walked there as it was a beautiful sunny morning.
She asked some questions - what was church like? what would we do there/ who would be there?
I answered vaguely but with enthusiasm.  She was interested and intrigued, as only an 8 year old can be, by the explanations of something she knows nothing about.
Then a series of questions which absolutely blew me away:  Is God at church? Yes, i said, He is.  How do you know? Have you seen Him?  Me: well not seen, but I have felt him, like a warm breeze at the beach.
Reflective silence.
What's this christening thing?  It's where we introduce a baby to God and tell the baby how special he is to us and to God.
Ok, so is God at church or is God everywhere?  Me - well I think He is everywhere.
So why do we need to go to church then?

I had a moment of blind inspiration ( A god moment!!!).  Well, you know how your Mum teaches people to dance?  And you can dance anywhere right?  But sometimes you want to go where you are will other people who are dancing, and where you can learn more about dancing.   She nodded, she got that.
So, that's kind of like church.  But instead of learning dancing we learn and think about God.

I was pretty proud of that answer.

But it made me realise - she is right.  God is everywhere.  And whilst I'm sure he is glad that we make an effort to turn up in church on a Sunday, if it's not part of what we do on a regular basis, he probably doesn't mind to much about that either.