Being a Believer vs. Being Religious

Today I was at a funeral for a dear family friend, and the minister made a point to distinguish the fact that while the departed was not a religious man, he was a believer. And that got me thinking.

My childhood was spent in constant church attendance. Only contagiousness or travel kept us out of the Sanctuary on Sunday at 8 a.m. (8:30 eventually, but either way you cut it, early). There was no choice . . .I would be in church, or face the dreaded silent treatment.

All those years in the third pew on the right were spent in, what appeared to be, revernt devotion. Truth be told, half the time I never knew what was going on, and the other half the time we were either singing or going through the liturgical motions (I was raised in the ELCA Lutheran Church . . .otherwise known as Catholic Lite). We had one of those very learned ministers who liked to fill the sermons with original greek words and traditional hebrew history. Yeah, that is really going to hold the attention of a teenager at O'Early Thirty on a Sunday Morning.

As I got older, I started to stray from the Sunday Sancuary tradition. College was my real downfall, primarily due to activities from the previous Saturday evening, night and late night (I was in a sorority, and I liked beer . . .any questions?).

However, even though I was no longer in the Sanctuary on a regular basis, those earlier lessons stuck with me. I may not have been a church goer, but I was and still am a Jesus follower and God lover. It's who I am.

My parents still don't understand how I can be true to my beliefs without showing up in the third pew on the right every Sunday. For them, there is no trueness of faith without the pew. But for me, I kind of look at it like I look at work . . .Just because I go to the office every day, it doesn't make me a lawyer. Only knowldge, experience and practice can make me a lawyer.

The same is true of my belief in God. Going to church does not make me any more convinced of my faith. Knowledge, experience, practice and trust are what make my faith, and my beliefs real. As the minister at today's service said . . .God doesn't care what is in your backround, He only wants to know what is in your heart.

I lost my heart to God a long time ago, and it was not in the third pew on the right.