And Now for a Little Religion

There is an amazing compulsion that comes over many to start the week off with a little dose of religion.  Dutifully, we get up and put on our "going to church" clothes and manners.  Then we head off to sit-stand-sit-kneel-sit-stand, sing a little and listen to the sermon.  Most of the time, there is little new to hear, but there is comfort in the ritual of it all.  This is why millions of people turn to their religion everyday.

We recently started attending church again.  It had been a long hiatus for me, as I was raised Southern Baptist and figured I had logged enough hours in church before the age of 18 to get me through until the end.  But the husband wanted to go, and the ingrained religious lemming inside me thought that it may be time to be a follower for a while.

This church experience has been different for me thus far.  Yes, the denomination is new, but the real difference is the minister.  She embodies the phrase "radiating joy" and works to make her messages (not sermons) relevant - but not in a Joel Osteen kind of way.  This is church and ritual, but it has a liberal dose of humanity thrown in too.

Don't ask me what this morning's biblical passages were, because I heard them but didn't really listen.  I also can't tell you how the message began.  But, a little ways into it, she got my attention.  She was talking about the Hebrew people wandering in the desert for 40 years before ending up at the promised land - a land of milk and honey.  This had been the goal and the "pay off" for all that they had suffered in their nomadic existence.  But when it came time to reach out and take it, they were afraid.  They were paralyzed because the promised land was populated by "giants."  Everything they wanted was right there.  They had a guarantee that it would all work out.  And yet, they were paralyzed by their own fear.

Wow.  Talk about a true lemming moment. 

It made me realize how so many of us, including me, are able to see exactly what we want.  We put in the time and work, all we have to do is take the final step for the "pay off."  Then fear steps in and cuts us off at the knee.

We once again fall prey to that lemming trap of the "comfort zone."

So pick up your slingshot and stone.  What's your giant?