I had noticed Robin's smiling face several times before when visiting Mike and I decided to wander over to see what she had to say. The honesty of her post touched a heartstring and gave me the desire to share on the subject as well.

I was raised as a member of the Methodist church in my small town. My Dad was raised Southern Baptist, but joined my Methodist Mom when the time came to do the family thing at church. My brothers went as long as they were forced to, and I stuck with it until I graduated from high school. From that time until my daughter's 1st birthday, I rarely darkened the door of any church. Her arrival into my life was a cue for me to give her the foundation that I had been given, and we began attending the same church that I grew up in. Her Daddy refused to accompany us, and so it was a girl thing between us. We did Vacation Bible school and Sunday school and everything you can think of as she grew up among friends and relatives. When she stopped attending in her early teen years, I continued to sing in the choir and teach Sunday school to teenagers who were still being forced by their parents to come. This group of kids was notorious for making SS teachers cry and quit with their lack of respect and intolerance of others. The ones who actually WANTED to hear what I had to say didn't have a chance because of the idiocy of the rest of them. I stuck with 'em though, until my non-attending daughter got out of high school. My routine included choir practice and socials and hours and hours of committee meetings ( Methodists are notorious for that! ). I guess you could say I was doing all the right things to be a good Christian.

A few years ago, I was a delegate to the annual conference for Methodists in my area. It was rude awakening to say the least when I observed the goings on of the official body of "my" church. At that time, one big issue in question was whether to ordain homosexuals as ministers. The hatred and bigotry that was spawned by those discussions at a national level turned my heart cold. Shortly after that, I began to spend my Sunday mornings in bed with a book and I've rarely gone back to any particular building to spend time with my God. The way I see it, He is with me wherever I go and hears my soul whispering praise and petition even without the dress up clothes and pot-luck dinners and tithes.

In Matthew 25:34-40 Jesus pretty much tells it like it is about how to live your life when the question comes up "What Would Jesus Do". I've got a feeling there are gonna be quite a few surprised Christians when the sheep and goat separating is all said and done. They may find that their support of organized religion and soul saving didn't take the place of those simple instructions to welcome strangers, visit prisoners, clothe the naked and feed the hungry and thirsty.

Take the money and the building out of it and what have you got? Just you and your God on a personal level. Your life is a gift from Him. Living your life as a ministry to others is your gift in kind.

Y'all keep the faith. ^j^