Church

It's hard, on your own.

You can be tough on yourself and fall into self-righteousness and forget the love of God and shrivel away.
You can be easy on yourself and fall into sin because "all things are permissible" and you can delude yourself into thinking that you're in the right.

That's where the Church of God comes in. The godly people that surround us are just part of that church. We have our church family, but the Church herself is all of the brothers and sisters united under Jesus Christ. One Holy Church. One faith.

We can disagree about some things, but the love of Christ transcends them all. Brothers and sisters that love Christ are able to minister to other brothers and sisters, whatever differences they have.

The saints pray for us, and we pray for the saints.

We pray.

Yes, we are fallen and we are wrong about some things. Theology is confusing. I admit that there are tangles in my theology I'm afraid to try to sort out. Gosh, I don't want to be wrong!

But my sister Elise took me in her arms and said, not knowing that I was wrestling with fear and trying to be strong, started saying, "Don't be afraid. It's okay. You don't have to work hard to be good enough..." and she started proclaiming that the Church was my Mother and how my brothers and sisters were my family.

It's so easy for me to forget. Simple love. Simple faith. My tendency to dive in and try and fix my heart is sometimes what cripples me and keeps me from ministering to others. Silly, huh?

It's my responsibility to love you well. My place, my calling, is to magnify and glorify Christ. I only hinder that by trying to withdraw from the world and "fix myself."

So friends, when in doubt and trouble, don't hide away to lick your wounds. The Church, though broken and lowly, will treat you as part of the body.

One Holy Church. The communion of saints. The forgiveness of sins. I believe in the ressurection. I believe in a life that never ends.