Just a Regular Ole Christian

Today for the first time in a loooooooooooooooooooooooooooong time I went to church with absolutely no identity. I was not on the staff. I was not the preacher's wife. I was not someone's grandchild or daughter. I was completely anonymous. For all they knew, I could have gone in shook hands, told them my name was Miriam Finkelstein and was thinking about converting from Judiasm. I didn't, however. Instead, I simply enjoyed being able to worship God, pray, and be part of a community of believers. And I did all this with absolutely no responsibilities.

Sometimes those of us who work in the church can get so caught up in our jobs/calls that we cease to worship God. And though many of us left seminary with the good intentions of finding other times and places to worship very few of us followed through on that. In fact, none of the seminarians that I graduated with and am close to and are persons who serve in parish ministry have a place or opportunity for worship outside of the places we work. (Perhaps this says more about my friends and me than anything else.)

I imagine this is part of the reason I (and we, I think) so enjoy going to conferences and continuing education events. At these places my vocation is normalized, and I become just one of the crowd. My hope is that the sense of peace and calm that I felt in worship this morning will rejuvinate my attempt to find somewhere I can be with God and God's people and not also find myself making a list of what supplies I need for next week's youth group. I'll let you know.