One of the things that I have been thinking about a lot lately is about where place their faith and the church in their lives. When I say "faith," I mean a person's life centering trust in who God is (something that is only known by what God does...). When I say "church," I mean the church universal that is present in the lives of people gathered in Christ's name. Now, I'm not speaking primarily of placing faith and the church in terms of how we prioritize them in order of the things we care about in our life. This isn't a "what comes first?" placing of the church, although to be sure for many people, myself included, some serious meditation on this subject should be made. What I mean by "placing" is simply whether or not church and faith is something you put on a high and narrow pedestal in your life.
My hunch is that people have all too often held faith and church as a high and valuable virtue. We hear this happen we or others recount our mountain top experiences - those places and times where we feel the closest and most connected to God in our lives. Church and faith are very good virtues in our lives. They should be given high esteem and be a valued priority in our lives, yet but what about all the times in our life where we feel like we've fallen from that highly exalted and good place? This question is what makes me wonder about placing the church and faith on such a high and narrow pedestal.
When this happens, I've been pondering another question as of late. How can church rather be a place of support and strength for people in their bad times? How can church and faith be a place that you turn towards rather than fall from. Shame and guilt and pride can be real roadblocks for us in our lives to even begin to feel that the church and our faith are places where we don't belong. We say to ourselves, "Church is a place that I went to when things were right in my life - when things were good."
That's why the very last verse in the whole of Psalm 119 seems so important to me as I read it.
"I have gone astray like a lost sheep; seek out your servant, for I do not forget your commandments."
We need our faith and our churches to be a place that we turn towards when bad times hit. We need to realize that all too often we are like sheep who have gone astray and are in desparate need for God's guidance and support in our lives.
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