If October was a brittle maple moon.
If November was a rush of blackbirds.
Then December was a broken hallelujah
…….for us.
A hallelujah that echoed through empty hills and blind valleys
and brought me a bigger family than I knew I had.
A church.
Let me back up a bit.
No scratch that.
Let me just say it like this.
Church is when you don’t even know who is hurting.
And they don’t even have to ask.
But your heart rushes to be a million small voices singing in their darkness.
(you were that for me)
Love will always be the great ministry.
I’m fond of telling it.
This season has been mine to receive—
to lay pride low and lift up my eyes to see help coming for me,
For my husband and small ones.
Great blue clouds of silver stallions.
It surprised me that I didn’t think to expect it.
To realize that I have spoken of grace and love at every turn,
but didn’t believe that it would be there for me.
The cosmic love that changed everything and still does.
That I can live, as I do, off the beaten path on a sad road where the paved parts are more broken than not.
Where the moon is silenced by a thousand scraggly pine trees and the mailman routinely forgets, or loses, half our mail—only to finally bring it bent and smudged months after the post-date.
That even here, love would find us when we didn’t know where to turn.
And when things were at their worst—and I thought no one really knew—love did
and met us between the rock and the place that’s hard.
Between the Hand and the Crimson; that help was waiting.
And I just want to say.
Don’t give up.
on this thing called church.
Because it can be a simple gathering of hearts across the distance.
It may not be in a building.
It may not be in your hometown.
It may not live in the mouth of the fancy preacher on the television.
It may not be what you thought it was your entire life.
It is more than sitting and standing and unanimous voices of song.
Life will continue its strenuous briefness.
But there is glory. There is love,
and church is a Good God’s urge.
{ 26 comments… read them below or add one }
Foundation shaking challenges here, thank you. Too true for me:
“It surprised me that I didn’t think to expect it.
To realize that I have spoken of grace and love at every turn,
but didn’t believe that it would be there for me.”
Too many people abandoning this coming together of hearts when we actually need to build together and not apart.
“Don’t give up.
on this thing called church.
Because it can be a simple gathering of hearts across the distance.”
Needed to hear this today. Thank you.
me too.
wow. to all of this. what a beautiful tribute to what God means for the church to be. and what a beautiful story of faithfulness and caring and love come down.
thanks for sharing your story.
steph
perfectly yes.
You are SO loved.
This description of The Church resonates…it simply needs to be more true. More real, each day.
Thank you for these words.
amen.
“Church is when you don’t even know who is hurting.
And they don’t even have to ask.
But your heart rushes to be a million small voices singing in their darkness.”
Beautiful. This is what we all should aspire to do, sing in someone else’s darkness.
Beautiful and poetic. I may print this one off and carry it with me a while.
deep breath. this was balm, sara sophia.
Beautiful, inspiring post, Sara. Your words jumped off the pages into my heart. You’ve expressed the heart of the real church. Blessings.
I’ve been trying to find the right words to express my thanks for this post. All I can come up with is beautiful and inspiring.
So true, so true. I’ve been thinking about people who quit church a lot lately, thinking about weather that’s ok or not. But giving up just because we’re imperfect people, even though we hurt each other sometimes we are still one body. There are so many more words I could put to these thoughts which are ecscaping me right now. But what I wan to say is this, from one life to another: thank you, this post has helped me on my journey.
This is absolutely beautiful and what I needed to hear. Your words gave me goosebumps.
Heartfelt, spirit-filled.
This is a subject in which I need to find some peace…
I’ve been struggling a lot with what “church” is… I get so weary of the harsh emphasis on one building, one pastor, and that one place being the “right” place and if you don’t attend twice per week you aren’t as *good* as the ones who do. I don’t believe it.
I wish wish wish church was less a competetion and more a connection of love and care that would stretch from one building to another and beyond. I wish that leaving didn’t mean people you thought were friends won’t talk to you anymore.
I don’t want to avoid the gathering, but I do.
I totally get those feelings. Because our current definition feels so boxed in. (may I note especially here in the South) Church is more than a checked off box. More than an attendance slip. More than something that you do because everyone will think that you are “backslidden” (OH THAT WORD).
I feel like I’m finally figuring out what it means to worship together.
And this here?
The you and me and a computer screen and a holy whisper.
That can be church too.
amen.
Beautiful! Much love and many blessings to you!
i love you. xo
My only words: Thank you.
Yes.
I was ridiculed a few weeks ago on my own blog for not attending church in the phsycial sense, for not standing up & sitting down & singing songs.
But church is not a building. It’s a body of Christ that can be anywhere.
Thank you for putting whta weighs on my heart into words.
Yes, yes, this is IT.
I love you so.
You do this writing thing right.
Beautiful…stunningly beautiful. Your expression of words took my breath away. I wanted them to be my own to be honest. I felt such a spark of inspiration coming up from the page. Thank you, thank you!
In my heart and mind, I hear your voice echoing with mine…must be because we have the same Father. Thankyou.
“It surprised me that I didn’t think to expect it.
To realize that I have spoken of grace and love at every turn,
but didn’t believe that it would be there for me.
The cosmic love that changed everything and still does.”
You leave me here quiet now…