A Christian Journey: Part 3

I wanted to share with all of you a new and exciting spiritual development in my life--I have found a church where I can finally "belong". I thought I'd share it with you over Christmas in several short posts instead of one big long one. I can't wait to hear what you think. I'm hoping you'll be excited for me, and perhaps encouraged about finding spiritual community for yourself, if you've not found somewhere yet. 

Part 3 of 6:

(...continued from Part 2)

Now that I have thought about this for a few months, I realize why. I’d have to change myself too much to be accepted and approved of, and I just can’t do that anymore. I am who I am and I believe what I believe. And I just don't enjoy being around people who don’t think I’m a good or decent person or who don't think that my opinions or beliefs are valid. I don’t want to waste my time or theirs. 


It has taken me a long time to give myself permission to accept what I truly believed deep in my heart. The Bible can be interpreted in so many ways. For me it's important to take the Bible as a whole, then select the interpretation that seems to us to resonates most with who Jesus was and who God and the Holy Spirit are. It is always a gamble as to which interpretation is correct, but we gamble with our lives then, don’t we--all of us--and with our eternal salvation too. I know I’m gambling, but so is each and every person, when they choose what they believe. So this year I allowed myself to figure out and then accept  what I really believed in--first--and then tried to find a church that was enough like that set of beliefs that I might find some community there. 


(To be continued...)


~Photo by LoveHubbie Mark