Thoughts About Church

I am not against church. I know sometimes in my previous posts it seems that way. I can only speak of my own experience and sadly it isn’t good. If you attend church and that’s something you need then do it. I’m not discouraging you from doing that at all. We all have to make our own way. 

I haven’t attended church in over 10 years. Don’t worry, I’m still a believer and I won’t say that I would never go back. For now, it isn’t part of my life. For the first 45 years of my life church was a major part of my life and the center of my universe.

So why did I leave? Did someone hurt my feelings? No.

Honestly I was floundering and felt lost. I started feeling worse when I left church than when I arrived. I was miserable and something had to change.

I made some life changes and I went in a different direction for me. I left the church but I didn’t leave God. You have to understand how the church had controlled my life to that point. It was suffocating me. I had to break free of that and find the person I needed to be.

I know the Bible talks about not forsake the assembling but you can’t expect everyone to be lumped into church going believers. I honestly don’t think that having any church attendance records is something that God expects of us.

I still have friends that I grew up with in the church who are either pastors or faithfully attending church. I have the utmost respect for them. There is certainly nothing wrong with them. As I stated earlier, we all have to make our own way. Life is challenging and takes us in many directions.

Regardless if we go to church or not, the important thing is ultimately our personal relationship with God. I would never make a blanket statement over what people do to remain faithful in their dedication as a believer.

Attending church offers significant benefits for many, but it's ultimately a personal decision, and a deep spiritual life is possible through various paths, including community engagement outside of a physical building.

When You Are Crushed in Spirit

I still remember the moment when my spirit was crushed. I was riding home from work when it happened. The details aren’t important but that moment was a pivotal point in my life. It caused my life to change course.

What does it mean to be crushed in spirit?

It is the event or situation which breaks the emotional glass in your soul. It is more than just being hurt, it is a trigger moment in life. It is something that crushes you so deeply that you either let it destroy you or you decided to make changes in your life.

Crushed in spirit" describes a state of total emotional, mental, and spiritual exhaustion caused by intense grief, trauma, or unrelenting life struggles. Often referencing Psalm 34:18, this condition involves a broken will, loss of hope, and profound sorrow. It signifies being overwhelmed to the point of feeling unable to cope, yet the Bible promises divine closeness and healing for those in this state.

A crushed spirit is when you are broken, wounded, or defeated spirit, described as feeling "at the end of one's rope".

In my case, I chose to make a change. It was drastic. I’m sure people who knew me at the time only know their outside view of it but none of them saw the shift inside of me.

I think we all have these moments in our lives. Something will either crush us or prod us to change direction. That one moment. The final straw to forces you to examine your life and become bitter or better.

Having been through this moment, I have some things to share with you about how to handle it.

#1 - Find a place to examine your life.

Make the time to get away by yourself. Maybe a long weekend at the beach or just any place where you can have time to think. It must be a place where you can do some serious soul searching.

#2 - Don’t worry about what other people will think.

Sometimes we are too concerned about pleasing everyone else that we forget to be happy. We worry too much about what people will think about us.

#3 - Decide what you want to do and do it.

When you know the path you want to take - do it. Don’t waffle about it. Decide to be who you are. You might have to burn some bridges so you won’t be tempted to go back.

#4 - Don’t give up if the changes get hard.

Making changes won’t be easy don’t allow the difficult things to discourage you. It isn't an easy thing to rebuild a crushed spirit and it takes time.

When you are crushed in spirit, you don’t have to stay crushed. Find a way to rise above it and renew your mind and spirit. You might find that in the end it was worth it.

I look back now nearly 15 years later that I made the right decision and I took a new course in my life. I can tell you with absolute certainty that I am living the life I am supposed to be living. I am exactly where I should be. I have no regrets. Did I do everything right? No, but I had to figure it out along the way.

Having your spirit crushed isn’t the end. It could be a new beginning.

Living in Perilous Times

Once upon a time we could “agree to disagree”. Sadly we can’t seem to do that anymore. It only takes a few minutes on social media to see how divided we truly are. Unity is hard to find. Even a choice not to be political is being political.

I’m tired of politicians regardless which side they are on. We had one recently who had a big block party to celebrate the start of his time in office.  He hasn't even done anything yet.  Have a party after you have accomplished something first.

I’m done with talk and parties and promises. Hype doesn’t get the job done. Action is what matters. I remembered last summer that someone stood for hours addressing congress. Why?  Words without actions are just words.

Where is the integrity? I try not to make a blanket statement over every politician but most get elected and seek money and power. The greed lures them to be out of touch for how the rest of us really exist.

Fake news? Yes there is a lot of it - both ways. Who can you trust? One news person talked about transparency and being like Walter Cronkite. If you have to tell us that then that is already a red flag.

There was a time when we couldn’t figure out how the Anti-Christ would be able to deceive people but with the reality of  artificial intelligence (A.I.) and slanted news it is eerily possible now.

Scary times.

I fear where we are headed but the Bible warned us about this. There is one verse which warns us about “perilous times”.

The Apostle Paul's warning to Timothy was that these last days will be filled with “perilous times.” The Greek term translated “perilous” is chalepos. Its basic meaning is “stress” or “fierce,” coming from a root word meaning to “reduce strength.”

Those times are here. More than ever before.

I worry when I walk the streets when I see how many people are looking at their phones. Slaves to the technology which can easily be used to track us. With every software update, I have to disable settings which surrender more of my privacy. I can see how our phones could play into the plans of what is to come.

Conspiracy theories? Perhaps but the fact remains that we must be vigilant.

To be vigilant means “to keep careful watch for possible danger or difficulties.” Vigilance requires action. A vigilant person actively pays attention to what is vying for their attention and what affects the heart and mind. We must keep a clear mind as we vigilantly keep watch over our lives and the world around us.