When I was going through those years of questioning my faith, the role of church, the reasons I should attend church, and how could I continue to serve, I wandered from church to church and seemed to notice little things that didn’t matter. I had decided from my own studying and praying that as a Christian I needed to be in church. Through divine intervention, God put circumstances with employment and college to move me from the small town in Louisiana to Kentucky, then to Illinois where I finally found a church where I felt I belonged. In Energy and through the Lone Oak Baptist Church, did God bring me to a point where I fully understood that I needed to belong in a church, I needed to attend and be faithful in a church, and I needed to go to church not for what others thought of me, but to build a stronger relationship with my Lord Jesus Christ.
When we allow our own understanding and perception to affect our spiritual journey we are bound to have problems. It’s not easy to totally submit to God’s plan when you’re hurting, feel rejected, and outcast. It’s not easy to continue to go to church when you feel that you are being judged or singled out by others. Our own understanding allows us an escape – we cast the label of hypocrite at those we perceive are hurting us and never realizing that we, too, are hypocritical. What we must ask ourselves is who are we trying to serve – ourselves or Jesus Christ and who are we hurting by not going to church?
