Because I was touched by the sermon, reminded of my best self, inspired to journey to be a wise woman.
Because all around me I saw chaos: financial, physical, organizational, emotional.
Because the mess sometimes hinders the spiritual path of our members, some of whom have left. Including Mama.
Because we voted to continue to make some of the mess deeper.
Because I voted against the majority and feel like a pariah, having already felt isolated from my community this year because I'm teaching Religious Education and miss out on coffee hour because I'm watching the kids.
Because church provides another family for my kids--a group in which they feel welcomed, accepted, supported, and loved--but it's often a dysfunctional one.
Because I know it can be such a joyous, compassionate, accepting, comfortable place; I have felt the love, even in the chaos.
Because I know I can do good through church, for our members and our wider community.
Because I have learned so much from our minister and our members--radical hospitality, compassionate communication, meditation, prayer, simplicity, social justice, the everyday sacred.
Because the member whom I drove home in the pouring rain reminded me that, though I just turned 39, I am still just a babe; she is in her mid-90s and she is right.
We are all babes. And we need compassion and wisdom, not chaos. I will still look for it at church and try to find it by creating it around me.
Because I still want to be part of church when I'm in my mid-90s. And my kids in their mid-90s too.
No comments:
Post a Comment