"Church"

Just about a year ago I was searching for a new church home. I met with the pastor of a church in my neighborhood, to "check" him out. I told him that I did not need a church which would tell me how and what to believe; I wanted a church where it was okay to ask questions, a group of people who were comfortable living with questions, as opposed to needing to have answers.

That pretty much sums up the place I find myself in right now. I am very comfortable not having all the answers, not being able to figure everything out exactly. I sense there are things happening in our world, and probably in the universe! I don't know where everything is going; I don't know how everything will turn out. But I trust (bolded to indicate a connection to one of the themes of this blogsite); I believe there is a force, a power in the universe which is in control of things. I believe this ultimate source of power is benevolent, a loving energy, if you will. I willingly place myself in the care of this loving, spiritual energy, and seek to follow its lead, and facilitate it in whatever way I am able. (Thus this blog!)

I believe that we are living in an incredibly exciting time; I sense things are moving towards some sort of culmination point. I feel very fortunate to be living in a time like this. There is much fear in our world right now; I do not share this fear. I have full trust that we are being taken care of, that we are being led towards some thing. And I believe that we are participants in whatever it is that is happening. We are each given tasks to accomplish.

Another thing I told the young pastor last summer was that while I have ultimate and complete faith in The Source, in "God", I do not have the same sort of faith in Church, in organized religion. I view Church (and I will use a capitalized "Church" when speaking of it in general terms, as in "organized religion") as a very human entity. As such it is full of human foibles and errors. It amazes me that even with such a jaundiced view of Church, I continue to participate in it! But, I guess I see myself as very human as well, with my own foibles, my own shadow side. So why not join myself with other humans who are seeking answers just as I am?

How this trust, or faith, in God, if not in the Church, plays out in my life during the present time will be the subject of future posts.