As a kid I attended church. It wasn't quite by force, more like there was no other option. We attended a Seventh Day Adventist church and it was less than okay. My brother and me made some friends, of which none of them are in our present day, not even as an acquaintance. The church was riddled with unwritten rules that couldn't be found in the bible. And don't get me started on the hypocrisy.
When the age came to make my own choice to stay home, I did and I never went back. Recently I shared (on April 2nd) going back to my childhood church for a funeral. This past Saturday, I decided to try a new church in my town and brought my two kids with me. This church also has its roots in Seventh Day Adventist. They want people to come dressed how ever they want. From suits to sweatpants. They serve free coffee and pastries. Kids can go to play and aren’t forced to sit in a pew in perfect stillness, as we were forced to as kids. Its... different here, and I liked it.
The sermon I sat in was not a sermon, but a poetry reading. How cool is that? Presenters went up to share their poems. All of them talked about struggle, pain, trauma, and other heavy and hard things. But the punch line in each was their faith in God. How God had their back or, how they devoted themselves to God and it all worked itself out, even better than they could have imagined.
The lead pastor had a poem and what stood out to me was his refrain, "what are you going to decrease so that you can increase?" What are we going to stop doing in order to increase something else? Are we going to turn off the TV to connect with someone or ourselves? Are we going to decrease our phone use to increase our focus for something else? Are we going to decrease our affair in order to increase our awareness of what’s important to us? ... he didn't give these examples. However, ask yourself the question, "what will I decrease so I can increase?" Powerful question to reflect on.