Shine Today

So many thoughts have been going through my head and heart since I wrote the previous entry. I want to put this into practice. Making a way for those who struggle or have even fallen away to reconnect. But even since I wrote it, I too have struggled. Not with God, but with how to put something together. I so want people to stay connected and yet so many have fallen away, or don’t know where they belong, or are just plain frustrated with the “church” today. I even worry that they won’t trust my intentions, or me. A friend of mine told me that she is not even sure she believes in God. That made me mad. Not at her, but at us, believers. Here’s the thing - We were never meant to do it on our own. We were not created to be separate, but to be together. It was never supposed to be about a building or a place of worship. However, today we have turned Christianity into a religion, a set of rules. And we have made the church about a building, about how well a pastor can speak, ab...

Last night I was thinking about some things, about how the whole situation with the church, not just RLC, but us, THE church, is just messed up at times. And then I thought about the song “If We Are the Body” and a specific line – “A traveler is far away from home. He sheds his coat, and quietly sinks into the back row. The weight of their judgmental glances tells him that his chances are better out on the road.” And I started to wonder, how many people fit this persons? Being judged by the way they look, by what they wear, by how they talk. And how many others simply go unnoticed? Their pain quietly hiding behind their smile. We are supposed to be the body, Christ IN us. Yet, how many of us have been the one who didn’t notice someone because we were so busy with US? So consumed with the current gossip that we don’t even realize the person next to us is crying. This is me, being very open at the moment, but please don’t take this wrong – I have been married for just about 20 yea...