Even Jesus Hates the Yankees

Jesus

So this blog is not about baseball but it is about our church.
On Dec. 30th I got a call from our pastor asking me to speak at church one Sunday during the month of January. But first of all, lets back up.
After the shit storm of 2007, I decided that I needed a place to go so that I could start to piece things together about why things happened the way they did over those few months. Church was the answer for me. It was no surprise that since I was brought up in a catholic family, I turned to God for answers. I just always disliked what the church had become; old, boring, scary and handing out guilt left and right.
So in March of last year we started to go to a mission church called Light of the World (LOTW) headed by a small but extremely charismatic female pastor. I connected with her right away. We have shared lots of great conversation over coffee and I have started to work out my personal beliefs and ideas about religion as well.
So, the 30th comes around and Pastor Deb calls me up and asks if I would be willing to share my story about how the community of the church has helped me and/or what it has meant to me since we started attending LOTW. I said yes and here is what I came up with. I just thought I would throw it out there so that I don't forget that I did it.
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I was brought up in a catholic family. My parents weren’t as strict as my grandparents were about religion, but we went to church every Sunday, no matter what. Church for me was a waste of an hour. I barely understood why I was there and what I did get out of it, I was scared of.
So, as I grew up I knew that church was important, but I had no desire to go. Once Brian and I had kids it seemed to become more urgent to find a church to bring the girls to, but whenever we went, I felt like we were more of a nuisance to the people around us, even though that probably wasn’t the case.
We stopped going and decided that we would find a church when the time was right, whenever that was.
Then the fall of 2007 Natalie couldn’t seem to stay healthy. One of our closest friends, who suffered from bi-polar disorder, took his life in December and Natalie’s illness increased. As we were grieving for our friend and going through testing with Natalie, I started to break down. Natalie was diagnosed with Celiac Disease, which is an intolerance to gluten, and our lives got flipped. Our way of shopping and eating completely changed. I missed my friend, I was hurting for my daughter and I couldn’t keep up with teaching my first graders let alone be a good wife and a mother to Brian, Natalie and Macie.
A couple of weeks ago, Pastor Deb talked about Jesus looking for us when we are at our worst. Well, that’s when I decided that I needed him. Badly.
We took our baptism class for Macie with Pastor Deb at Shepherd of the Valley and we both really liked her right away. At that time she told us that she was starting a new church, how that came about and that it was going to be located in the Farmington area. In March of 2008, we attended LOTW for the first time and I immediately felt at home.
The more we attended, the more I felt whole. For the first time in my adult life, I wanted to belong to a community. I want to participate, join in, and give because I wanted to, not because I felt like I had to. The community has given so much to me in return as well. Finding people who have gone through similar situations or even just being a sincere ear to listen when I need to vent.
I am very lucky to have always had great family and friends that have supported me throughout my life.  I always thought that would be enough for me. As it turns out, it wasn’t. Now through LOTW, the spiritual part of my being is also being taken care of. I have this wonderful community that surrounds me and my family when things are going well and when they take an unexpected turn.
Natalie is doing great now and she even gets her own special cracker at communion.  If you didn’t know already, that’s us holding up the line each week.
I love that my girls can’t wait for Sunday to come so they can go to church to listen to the great music and run around with the other kids. I love that I don’t feel as if we are bothering anyone when they need to get up and run around the table because all I have to do is look next to me and most likely another little one is feeling the same way.
I am so excited for this church to grow, I am thrilled for with the future holds for this community, and it means a lot to me that I am going to be able to be a part of it.

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