Monday,
March 14
Sometimes…
…there
is still room.—Luke
15:22
Sometimes I’d rather
sleep in. Stay in my pjs. Read the paper in my sunny kitchen. But I come
downtown…trudge through Trinity…and I’m jolted awake and alive…my friend,
Brian, buys burritos in the Café and takes my daughter and her youth-group
friend to give breakfast away while they talk with two homeless teenagers on
the corner…later, today’s truth wells up in my eyes when the choir sings to me
a gentle song of faith…at one point in the morning, I muster up the trust, find
my courage and my innermost thoughts as I talk with close friends in Homebuilders
class about our spiritual truths and our shared family struggles—all punctuated
by “You, too?!”s and plenty of laughs, words and stories not often heard in a
church that make me want to come back…then in worship, my Dad simply puts out
his hand to hold mine through a tough time…no words needed…afterwards, I feel
my heart jump out of its skin when I hear our children’s choir leaders, careful
to divulge no specifics, marvel at the prayer one of their singers said with
his friends in rehearsal and about how tall he’s walking now, then about the
voice another boy just discovered he has…and I cheer silently when I hear the
bold questions my daughter and friends raise with each other and with their
youth leaders, leaders and teens unflinching…I cheer again when my son, back
from college, is welcomed home with embraces from all generations and
youth-group friendships that remain strong, unfaded by distance…I am in awe
when, by chance, I meet a new care receiver in the Café and am stretched into a
new walk together with her…
This is what happens
for me on a Sunday…in the structures of church…and in passing…and Jasper’s and
Mike’s words from the front of the sanctuary echo in my mind—the essence of why
we come…why I didn’t sleep in.
A friend of mine said, “What I love about
Christianity is that it embraces all of life…the good, the bad…the beautiful,
the not…the trust, the doubt…the joy, the sorrow…” It’s what I love about a
Sunday.
Kathy Dunnewald
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