A "Normal" Sunday At Last!

Since illness has been an unwelcome visitor in our home for what's felt like forever we hadn't been to church since Thanksgiving weekend. Yes, you read that correctly. Not Christmas, but Thanksgiving weekend. I can't recall a time in my life when I've ever been absent that long! Today we were able to participate in service (til we were paged to come for Nolan--no surprise there!) and it was so wonderful to be back! I felt truly rejuvenated as we left the sanctuary...and I definitely was in need of spiritual rejuvenation. I confess that when I'm not in constant fellowship, corporate worship, and learning from a gifted Bible teacher my spiritual life becomes stale rather quickly.

I've never been able to understand people who claim that they are Christians but don't feel the need to go to church. Fellowship is integral to growth--the Bible makes that clear. Yes, we can (and should!) study God's Word on our own, but when we make a conscious decision that no one else will be granted the opportunity to expound upon God's Word in our lives I believe that we are robbing ourselves of an amazing God-given gift. I learn just as much (if not more) from my pastors as I do in my own quiet, personal time with the Lord. Granted, there are countless people throughout the world who can't go to church for a variety of reasons. However, I know that God knows their personal circumstances and meets them where they're at. But when a person can go to church and benefit from an anointed pastor's teaching but chooses not to? I suppose I'll never understand.

Before we were married Todd and I never even had to have the discussion whether or not weekly church attendance would be a part of our lives. We both knew that we both prioritized it "at the top." After all, we met serving at church! We pray that, in time, Nolan comes to love being at church as much as we do. Now if we could just get through an entire service without having to come "rescue" Nolan from the nursery sometime in the semi-near future we'd be golden!