musings on church

i have realized something lately: i love church. i do not know if i have ever truly been able to say that up until this point. i think for a long time that i felt like "loving church" entailed simply waking up on sunday morning and not wanting to go back to sleep. i do not think this is true anymore. i think loving church has a lot more to do with connecting and caring about the people, being challenged by the teachings, and desiring to come along side to help and participate in the vision being strived for. don't get me wrong; sunday is now one of my favorite days of the week, because i know that i can worship corporately in the morning and honestly listen and share in the evenings with these people who are fast becoming my family. the communication is not just on sundays either, which is really cool. i get so excited to see new emails in my inbox from my super cool community group containing things to pray about or talking about our next meetings or sharing parts of our lives with one another. honestly, i did not expect much the first time i visited redeemer; i almost figured that sunday would be no different than any of the others in my 17 years of life. thankfully, i was wrong. though i did not see a single soul that i knew, i still could sense the community this church contained. the 2nd sunday, i knew jenny, but received multiple invitations both to lunches and community groups from other people in the church. this blew me away! i had never encountered this kind of...hospitality (?....i am not sure this is the right word...) anywhere, but especially not a church! as i have begun to visit redeemer more frequently, i have started relationships with people, people who are wonderful and honest and broken. it is so encouraging and astounding to see the Lord working in these people's lives, and in my own. before i started going to redeemer, my counselor ashley told me that she thought i was starving spiritually-i was not getting fed on a constant basis spiritually. but last session, she told me that she has seen a profound change in me and my attitude toward the Lord, and consequently recovery. i just praise God He drew me to Himself and redeemer before it was too late.