Thoughts on Church

Some years ago I had an interesting conversation with a fellow — good man, father and husband.  He told me why he didn’t go to church anymore.  He said, “When I was a kid, my parents made me go to church every time the doors were opened.” He went on to say, “I promised that I would never do that to my kids, that I was going to let them choose for themselves when they were grown!”

I got to know him fairly well and discovered that he was a good guy, had a pretty deep faith, solid values and his belief in God was also important.  He also had a decent education and good teeth.  It seems his parents had supported him in faithful school attendance and getting his homework done, and beginning when the first tooth popped out, first brushed that tooth and then later made him brush his own.

He was a Christian man, had a successful life funded by his education, and his teeth worked well when it came time to chew his food.  You already know where I am going.  It is because his values and faith were formed by the church, his teeth were strengthened by Crest toothpaste that his parents purchased and made him use, and his brain had decent formation and was full of information that helped him get a good job and care for his family.

Why would he deny his children what made him the good Christian adult man he was?  Sometimes we make decisions from how we feel rather than from our faith.  Feelings are like building a house on sand, that when the wind and waves come, the house is washed away.  Faith is like building our house on a rock, that when that very same storm comes, the house remains standing because it was built on a rock (a rough paraphrase of the words of Jesus).