Here I am, slowly but surely starting to create a new "normal" in our daily routines and life. Our toddler is getting used to this new schedule which now includes another living creature. Our lives have completely changed and grew more complicated then I ever thought was possible! But the fun is just beginning and the amazing blessings that come with new life have already touched us making this life even more fulfilling...
But I haven't been back to church - I know a pastor and All! I am afraid of the germs that the new baby will catch and have even held off my toddlers return despite her plea to "go with daddy" on Sunday mornings. As I sit and drink coffee until noon, clip my coupons from the Sunday paper (planning my weekly grocery shopping) and enjoy life - I remember why there were Sunday mornings in high school when the alarm would ring and we would all cry from our beds "are we going to church?" We even have an inside joke in our family about some of these mornings. But lets face it, with the busy lives we live and with the schedules that demand our time throughout the week, having a morning to relax and enjoy family seems just as, if not more important then family? Doesn't it? And couldn't (as some have argued) that sitting at the table enjoying family is a form of worship, giving thanks to God and living life?
The lazy part of me who loves my PJs, so much that I wouldn't ever get out of them if respectable people could actually go around wearing them and be taken seriously, says YUP: staying at home and enjoying family is important and if Sunday morning is the time you can do this then I understand.
And a part of me always will understand...but then there is the part of me who feels kind-of weird not going to church...kind-of weird not taking that time in community with others to truly worship God and to give over my whole self for one hour. But I know that I feel this way because that is what I do on Sunday mornings - that is my tradition and if my tradition was to sit and drink coffee with family then I am sure I would feel out-of-sorts if I was working instead.
But if you don't carve time out of your schedule for God - create space for God in your life then you aren't going to be able to have a full relationship. If you don't make time for God's community in your life then you only have 1/2 the relationship you could...and sorry if this is harsh but you have much more of the selfish 1/2...the half that doesn't open yourself up to be challenged, to be called by God to do God's work in the world. You need time to fully engage in worship and although you could argue other outlets then church - why can't you just accept church?
It is like Green Eggs and Ham turns out her never tried them so he didn't know they were good. You can't proclaim that your Sunday morning tradition is better then church, if you haven't tired it.
