oh, for sundays...:)

Sometimes, Sundays are just hard to do.  It's the official last day of the weekend before life as I know it starts back up, hard and early Monday morning.  No matter how much or how little I have done since Friday evening, everything within me wants to hold onto as much time off as I can (not always easy to do when you're at church by 9:30...).  To top that off, sometimes, it's just hard to go to church.  I'm so guilty of always playing the consumer:  wanting everything just the way I order it, church included.  I expect the message I want to hear, based upon the text I choose most worthy, surrounded by the songs I think most ignite a heart of worship.

Not really practical, or for that matter possible.  And, typical consumer that I am, when my demands aren't met, I get frustrated, put out...how many of you have done the same thing on a Sunday morning (or night)???  I doubt I'm the only one...

And yet here's a lesson learned--one that's especially relevant because it came from my experience in church this Sunday:  though I might bring against it my complaints and dissatisfactions, church is the only place in which I can fully gather with the rest of the body of Christ to worship Him in spirit and truth.  I'm not saying that true, spirit-filled worship can't happen anywhere else because it can, but I am saying that almost none of those experiences involve the rest of the body...fellow believers who find themselves in the same difficulties, tough times, and learning experiences that I do.  And without, I need that unity...

The lesson I gained from my fellow worshipers this week was that of the absolute faithfulness of God.  It started with hugs and encouraging words from dear friends and acquaintances as soon as I set foot inside the big double doors.  It continued with us, together, singing, "Great is Thy Faithfulness."  As I sat there and listened to the words, I felt myself counting all the ways the Lord had been faithful just in my two weeks for Christmas break.  A humbling thought when I considered how much of my faithfulness been to my wants and desires (imagine that....).

The lesson continued with the message:  the faithfulness of God made known through the very genealogy of His Son, the Messiah promised to the Jews and awaited for thousands of years.  Thousands of years...That's an incredibly long time.  And yet, over and over throughout that time, God reminded His people of His promise...over and over throughout that time, He remained faithful to His name...and then, at His appointed time, He delivered.

There's so much more to it than that...there always is.  And I don't even know if I necessarily made a main point...I hope that I at least managed to make a couple of small ones:  one of them being that my God is incredibly faithful to His purpose, and as part of that purpose, I get to experience the blessing of His faithfulness as well...another of them being that I would not have been reminded of that had it not been for the church...the beautiful body of Christ.