Our church looked amazing Easter Sunday!
I used the landscape setting on my Droid in an attempt to capture the whole stage and altar.
But I forgot to change the setting back to portrait when I asked a fellow churchgoer to take this photo of my girls and me.
And it was still set to landscape when I took this photo of the sunset, which actually worked out quite well.
With expecting a new baby, Allan and I decided to change churches and a few weeks ago, we began the process by participating in the church’s membership class. It’s been an interesting journey offering many opportunities for self-discovery. Each week is like a little workshop that delves into understanding yourself, your role in the church and how it all leads up to serving God. Last week, we searched for our heartbeat and I realized I have no pulse.
Your spiritual heartbeat is defined by your passion. What motivates you? What lights your fire and fulfills you? How does your passion serve God?
I could easily answer the first and second questions. I am passionate about so many things: my family, my children, my friends, running, writing, my mom’s group, teaching, connecting with people, charitable acts, politics, women’s issues, humanity and the environment. But for this week’s assignment, we had to tie it all up in a neat little bow with a concise label and for me, my passions didn’t seem related to one another. Each of these things is so different from one another, how do they ultimately lead me to serving God?
I knew I needed to pray about it and have daily conversations with God to find the answer. The search for my heartbeat continued for days after last Sunday’s membership class, but I knew eventually the answer would arrive.
While waiting for an answer or some sort of sign from God, my thoughts were also preoccupied with my friend, Jackie. It would be two years since her daughter, Julia, passed and I knew this week would be difficult for her. As I prayed for her family every day, by chance I bumped into her at our Target. I hugged her told her that she was in my thoughts and if she needed anything, I would be there for her.
An hour after seeing Jackie, I received an e-mail stating that I had been selected for a paid writing job. Then the next day, one of my posts was featured on WordPress’s homepage. Some might call these occurrences simply a coincidence but for me, it was the validation I needed. The things that I was most passionate about were also the things that God recognized as my heartbeat.
Although I still can’t put a label on any of it and fit in all into one neat little package, I understand a bit more about what fulfils me even though I knew it all along, but now I understand how it all relates to serving God. These things (running, organizing my mom’s group, being there for my family and friends) don’t drain me. In fact, it’s quite the opposite. They fill me up with fervor and conviction.
So, what is my heartbeat? “Living life in a way that helps others”
Whether it’s being a SAHM, volunteering at my daughters’ school, leading a moms group, organizing a food or a collection for the needy, writing about my life and all it encompasses (running, children, friends, etc) IS my heartbeat. I am passionate about it all. By simply being me, I am is serving God and helping others. I live life to the fullest.
My life is my heartbeat.
I love my church.
It took a long time to find a church to call home, but we finally found a place that offers all the warm, cozy caring comforts of what my Father’s home should be.
I was raised Catholic, married in the Catholic church and baptized my babies in the Catholic faith, but with all these rituals and customs, I always felt like I was living the law of God, but not, living for God. As a result, I felt a spiritual void in my life for many years.
Once we moved to our new neighborhood, I longed to find a church to fill my spiritual needs, but a Catholic church was no longer a necessity. I wanted my children to know God and worship Him, not rituals or repetitive prayers.
Several of my friends told me about a wonderful church, but despite all their praise and encouragement it took me about a year to summon the courage to visit a non-Catholic church. My Catholic guilt caused me to believe I would betray my upbringing if attended a church of a different faith. Then during one Lenten season, I decided to test the waters at my friends’ church and commit to attending it regularly for Lent. (You can take the Catholic girl out of the church, but you can’t take the Catholic practices and guilt out of the girl.)
So, with blind faith, I took a leap. During that first visit, I felt God’s presence and I found exactly the spiritual healing my soul had been craving.
The Senior Pastor, Pastor Matthew, is a remarkable teacher. He teaches about the Word, but doesn’t preach it. He reminds us constantly that God loves us, but doesn’t condemn us. Our Savior walks with us constantly.
Over the past couple of years, I’ve learned so much about the Bible, more than I ever learned during years of religious instruction in the Catholic Church. I’ve discovered real world application to the Word. But more than that, the church is a living example of what our pastor teaches and models in his own life. Everyone we have met there in the past two years has been kind, warm and welcoming and I couldn’t be happier with our decision to join this church.
I am home.
Then one Sunday, as Allan and I slinked into church late and shamefully snuck into a seat in a back row pew, the band began playing Voice of a Savior. For me, it was a divine affirmation about our decision to switch faiths and join a new church.
Then Jesus said to them, “Whoever welcomes this little child in my name welcomes me; and whoever welcomes me welcomes the one who sent me.”
- Luke 9:48
