I can’t remember the exact date, or even the year, but I do remember the feeling.
I was in my very early 30s (I’m 54 now) and had made the decision to attend church one night after a long drought of attendance.
It wasn’t that I was living bad during this time, I was living quiet well actually….
Job was good, money was good, health was good, relationships were good, pretty much everything in my life was clicking right along and there was no real need for God, because I was the man, firmly in control of my ship.
Given all of that, I’m not sure what led me back to church on a Sunday night in Saraland, Alabama, to what was at the time North Mobile Baptist, but I do recall vividly the feeling as I walked in the sanctuary…. I felt like an imposter.
Not because of the congregation, they were welcoming, but because of me. Because I had ignored God for so long, and I knew better.
I clearly remember two things from that night. I remember taking a seat as far back as possible and I remember sitting there feeling like God wanted to say…. “What are you even doing here”, which was not God talking to me at all. Those words…. came from the enemy.
I struggled with trying to add God to my life for well over a decade after that night, dropping in and out of sporadic church attendance at best, often dictated by how “good” or “bad” my life was going.
Finally, in my late 40s, after all those years of running on worldly half full and eternal empty, I gave my life to Christ.
Not too long after that decision, on the morning of January 1, 2017, I made another decision. To attend church, every single Sunday…. for the entire year of 2017.
For the record, going to church won’t get you into Heaven, and not going to church won’t keep you out. That’s the truth.
But here is what that ongoing decision has taught me….
In essence I dedicated a couple of hours to The Lord, every Sunday, for six years now. For a little over 310 Sundays, I have enthusiastically “offered” Him that time, and He has blessed the effort, the time, and me, more than I can write about and more than you have interest in reading about. Amazing does not scratch the surface.
I’ve received more “spiritual” growth and blessing out of regular, dedicated, church attendance in the past six years of my life than I have in the prior 47 years combined. Also truth.
You read about that spiritual growth and blessing in the stories I write and the things I share. Those are the dividends.
Look…. Don’t misinterpret what I am saying. I’m not saying “look at me, look at me, I go to church”! That’s not the point.
What I am saying is that if you want God to work in your life then you’ve got to consistently….
Seek Him in your life…. give Him access to your life…. and give Him “time” in your life. That’s how it works.
No one handed me a gold star for perfect attendance when I walked through the church doors on the last Sunday of 2018, or in the years that followed, when I pulled it off, and, unless someone takes the time to read this story, then they will never even know it happened.
I’ll tell you what else won’t happen, and hasn’t happened in year and years….
I don’t sit in the back, and I don’t feel like an imposter when I get there, because Brother I’m right where I belong….
Excited to be there, “arriving expectantly” and, God willing, back again the next Sunday for more!
Next Sunday starts a brand new year, consider making attendance a habit. Just do it, and…. watch what God does in your life in 2023.
Get In The Boat. Do Your Part.
“Arrive Expectantly”, for all 53 Sundays in 2023…. From Nose To Toes!
Shane / #16