It happened again yesterday. The question, the only question it seems, that Christians ask other Christians that they haven’t seen in awhile (translated: haven’t seen in their church building in awhile)
So, where are you going now? (translated: what building are you going to now? I am asking because this is the only way I know to gauge your spiritual life as a Christian and I just don’t know what else to ask you about your life)
Nothing else seems to matter. No questions about my children, my grandchildren, my husband, our home, my mom. Those are just surface knowledge. If someone knew me even beyond five minute conversations, they would know about my art, my passion for authentic learning and for women, for life altering grace. Yet, even those that may have taken the time to know all that usually default to that one question first.
Initially, I answered honestly.
“We’re not. We’re not going anywhere”
When I detected the alarm in her eyes, I started reaching for excuses and explanations.
“Well, we do attend ________ sometimes because they have an evening service and since Chris works on Sundays . . . “
“But, the teenagers are stil coming here so sometimes I will be here . . . “
I am frustrated by my relenting to the single question examination, relenting to the point of stretching the reality of my life to fit into some answer she may find acceptable.
Thinking about it while driving kids to camp (in near 100 degree temperature, in my big van with no air condition), I realized that the true answer isn’t that we go nowhere but that we go everywhere!
We go downtown spending hours talking to other seekers about life and God and faith.
We go to Barnes and Noble and continue those conversations, finding ways to understand and love each other.
We go to a retirement home to deliver food and more importantly, checking in on old friends.
We go to a building and shovel insulation and ceiling material, making a place available for children and believers to meet.
We go to movies with our children, enjoying the chatter that lasts for hours afterward.
We go to my mother’s and direct the remodeling of her home because she can’t and we want her life to be stress-free.
We go to Scouts and Co-op, teaching others what we love.
We go to help friends sew dolls to honor the memory of another’s mother, grandmother, to help ease the grief of her husband.
We go to the museum, to the park, to the library finding God in art, in nature, in literature.
We go to concerts, near and far, nurturing our love of music and finding God again.
We go to art tables and to bird sanctuaries, honoring the passion that we have inside.
The point is that we are never not going. Even at times, for various reasons, we may go to a church. But those isolated occasions don’t define us spiritually, those aren’t the culmination of our walk with God.
We are seeking a more holistic journey that doesn’t compartmentalize our spiritual experiences. One that becomes aware of God in each conversation, in each experience, in each opportunity to share the burden of another.
So what about you … where are you going now?
