What Hail's Got (page 12)

I have had to leave church early for the past two weeks in order to get to work on time.  I'm in that boat of not being able to wait around.  

I hate it.

I wait till the last minute possible.  And if I do end up arriving at work a few minutes late, then I'm cool with that.  Church is more important to me.

It's more than that though - church.  It's what those four walls offer.  It's what takes place inside those walls:

The beauty of God.

The beauty of community.

The beauty of worship.

Wrap all that, plus loads more of the beautiful, up into a well-trimmed, polished glass, cross-bearing sign with its most likely cheesy yet truthful block lettered message board, and you've got Church.

I am a fan.  I might not be the greatest fan of waking up early for Church, but after 24 years I am getting acquainted with that rising.  Now I have my coffee; it's all good.

I'm not sure of the longest time I've gone without Church in my life is.  You can think that Church is a habit for me.  Go ahead.  But my friend, if that's the case then this habit is a sustaining habit, a forgiveness-flooded habit, an all encompassed love habit; a habit displaying grace on a cross at the front of the auditorium, displaying grace in the wind on the first cool-air September morning like God is wrapping the entirety of Himself around your body; grace displayed in the way the sun is imprisoned behind the clouds, but you still know it's there; grace in the rain, rain on your head, drip dripping rain folding flower petals beneath the weight of a Divinely breathed life, and rain renewing what might have been summer's burnt.  So pick that flower as a reminder that God cares about all of His Creation.

If that, my friend, is the habit I am habitually attending like breathing to keep alive, then I'm cool with that.  And I will continue the Sunday morning service call.  This is me not being addicted to the raw ceremonies of a non-denominational church; it is me in pursuit of the Divine.