Climbing Outside Reinforces Big Question

Yesterday, I was able to climb outside for the first time in a year and a half. It was awesome. My sweet husband stayed home with our bambino, and let me go play outside. The weather was perfect and the sky was as blue as it gets.

Cheesy though it may sound... I can identify with Eric Lidell in Chariots of Fire when he says he feels God's good pleasure when he runs. It's that way for me when I climb.

I went out by myself, hoping to run into folks that my husband and I used to climb with... We even prayed about it. Prayer answered.

This brings me to a funny issue. I felt so welcomed and wanted... those folks care about me and my husband. They're authentic. My husband and I volunteer with the youth group and are pretty active, but I don't feel that way at our church. Am I wrong, or should I feel more welcomed and loved by my church? WE were hoping to make friends with some Christians... you know folks who everyone now and then would call up us or we could call up and hang out... but beyond our scheduled small group Bible study, we don't feel like we've made any friends with adults. Lots of teenagers... but that's a bit different than people who are at the same stage in life as you...

Which brings me to a book I just finished reading - Under the Overpass. It raises some questions about how Christians treat homeless folk and I would extend it to people in general. If I as a Christian who is active in the large church that I attend don't feel the love, then how do non-Christians who visit feel? And, can I continue to go to and be a part of this church? For the sake of the kids I'm directly involved with, I think yes. But then I think about how I feel elsewhere in the church and I think no. It's a tough position to be in. So for the moment, my husband and I will just pray about it. We'll at least wait until school is out. It's tough. We'd appreciate your prayers as well. Thanks for checking in.