Okay, so I know we're still in November, but I'm sitting here listening to Christmas and I'm just in the festive mood :)
I've had the worst day, but it's getting better. Partly because of the music but mostly because of what's happening later:
I'M GOING TO CHURCH!!
Now most people who read that will just be like "urrmmmm..."
Church? Exciting? Fun? I don't think so.
That's how I used to think. I was carted into church for my Christening (still unsure as to why I was christened, due to complete lack of Christian family, but oh well) and forced back there every year or so for Easter service or mothers day. Church was compulsory, and... it was deadly boring. My Dad refused to set foot in church, which left my Mum with the job of setting a good example. The Reverend would talk, and my brother and I would gaze around the building at all the other children, all feeling the same pain, all mentally wishing ourselves some place else.
Of course, nowadays I realise that what the Reverend was talking about probably wasn't all that boring, but to the mind of an 8 year old, it was insufferable.
For the 15 years THIS was my image of church, THIS was my only contact with God.
So imagine the shock I got when my best friend invited me along to her church. It was something else altogether. Firstly, there were teenagers there :O
Real, living, breathing teenagers, who actually looked happy, and not like they were there against their own will.
Secondly, there was worship. You know when you sing a hymn, but you're not actually singing, you're just kinda mouthing the words... and mouthing the wrong words in the wrong places because you don't know the tune, and you really don't care...
Well it was nothing like that. Every single person was singing, singing loudly, singing from their very souls.
I can't really explain to you the effect this had, and still has on me. For someone who had never been really sure of anything, to stand there among those people, who were singing with faith, with love, with purpose. I wanted to know what had inspired this, I needed to know.
The third thing that hit me was the kindness. In real life, strangers don't smile at you, they don't want to talk to you. They don't care about you. Suddenly, there are people I don't even know, and they were being nice to me. I can't tell you how unnerving it was.
That night, I started asking questions, and I was given answers. That night was the beginning of my journey.
6 months after that first visit, and I'm a very different person. I mean I'm writing about God, on a blog, on the internet for all the world to see :)
The church is like my second home, some days I just want to chain myself inside and NEVER LEAVE :P
So to everyone out there who's never experienced a church like that, a church that makes you feel alive, go now and find one! They are out there, ready to be found. God is waiting for you:
"Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you." Matthew 7:7
Now I'm off to church <3
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