Good afternoon, blog friends! It’s been a little while, hasn’t it? Not sure what I’ve been up to except for a lot of work and probably too much TV. However, I’ve been alone in DC for the weekend, so I’ve had a little time to recharge and get caught up on things like blogging.
So this weekend has been relaxing, but full of fun activities. On Friday, I was down in Newport News for work. It was 82 and beautifully sunny—a perfect day for a road trip. I made it back home a little before 5pm, so I took advantage of the beautiful weather to host myself a little solo happy hour on my deck. Bud Light Lime, cashews and an Elin Hilderbrandt novel, just perfect. Saturday I volunteered with some coworkers at the Air & Space Museum all day then came home to get ready for my sweet friend K’s 25th birthday party! We had a fun group of people and lots of alcohol, and I even made it out until 1:30pm! (I think that must be a record for me post-college.) This morning was a little sleepy, but I made it to a new church this morning (more details in a second) and got a massage/manicure before coming home. I’m going to dinner tonight with some girlfriends, and then I’ll be planting it on the couch for my Sunday night TV lineup. And hopefully cleaning my apartment, it’s absolutely disgusting. And getting ready for my work trip to NYC tomorrow!
Anyway, back to this church I went to this morning. So I found this church from a book tour list of one of my favorite Christian writers, Shauna Niequist. I’ve blogged about her and her books before. She makes me calm and reflective and grateful and humbled. She’s from Chicago and went to college on the west coast, so when I realized that essentially the only east coast church she visited on her last book tour was only 15 minutes from my house, I knew I had to check it out. It’s an Anglican church, and I had never been to one before. I didn’t really know what it was or what they believed or how different it was from my Methodist home church.
When I walked into the enormous sanctuary this morning, there were what felt like a thousand people singing. “Holy, holy, holy, Lord God Almighty…” It was so beautiful. I’m not used to churches with hundreds in the congregation. I’m especially not used to churches with hundreds of people with their hands raised to the heavens, singing loudly, praying powerfully. It felt like a real community of faith, and even though I realized that I don’t necessarily agree with all of the pillars of the Anglican church, prayer is prayer and God is God and love is love. So if I’m moved by such a congregation, there’s no reason I can’t enjoy it, right?
After a handful of contemporary Christian songs, one of the pastors stood to make an announcement. Unbeknownst to me, this church is in some serious trouble. Back in 2006, the church voted with an overwhelming majority to separate from the Episcopalian church and join the Anglican church. Though there are only subtle differences (to me) between the two sects, they were unreconcileable differences for this congregation. So they bravely started their own church and have grown to a huge and powerful membership over the past six years. But in January of this year, a court ruled that the beautiful, historic church and everything in it…the pews, the Bibles and choir robes, communion font…were actually rightful property of the Episcopalian church. And on top of that, the church would owe money, lots of money, several millions of dollars, to the Episcopalian church, as well. That amount of money would drain all of the church’s resources. And they won’t have a home. No place to worship, no place to gather or pray or host church dinners. They’ll be relegated to hotel conference rooms or elementary school gymnasiums, and no one knows what the future will hold. And for a congregation in the thousands, it’s a lot of people to shepherd, no matter how big the temporary space.
But the pastor was gracious, and the congregation was, too. They reminded me that no matter how dire the situation, how difficult and unpredictable; and no matter how angry we are with the courts or the church or the attorneys, there’s always the mercy of God’s will. We can’t let ourselves get so destroyed in misery and uncertainty that we don’t see the next steps He has laid out for us. There’s light after darkness, life after death. Which is really a beautiful message of hope and aspiration even though it’s rooted in such a difficult situation.
Anyway, that’s what I’m thinking about this week. Or trying to focus on, at least. There is a future just waiting to be revealed to us. For better or worse, we can stop worrying and obsessing about next year or next month or tomorrow. Just trust and love and relax.
To letting it go,
Lia
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