I’ve been finding it really hard to connect all the different aspects of my life recently.
I have work, I have Toby and I have church. Unfortunately, I have found, as I have found before, is that church often gets demoted when my life gets to full.
It does frustrate me but often it’s because I’ve been too tired (like trying to go after a 12 hour shift) or the travelling puts me off (on public transport from Manchester). But these shouldn’t really be excuses. And I know that I should make the effort. The thing is I haven’t neglected the other Christian elements in my life. I often listen to worship music at work and read the Bible. But as it says in Hebrews 10:25
‘Let us not give up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but let us encourage one another—and all the more as you see the Day approaching.’
Why is church the one thing that quite a lot of Christians find so hard to connect with if their lives become too complex or too ‘busy’.
I think for me once I started to work especially at the weekends I found it more difficult to make it to church and I am also finding it hard to balance my life out spending time to prioritise all the different things that are happening. I love my boyfriend, he isn’t a christian but he and i have talked a lot about me being a Christian and he has no problems with it. But when it comes it comes to church it really isn’t as easy. I work sometimes 4 days a week and that means I get to spend 3 days with my boyfriend who lives 20 miles from me. So I usually go to work and then go to his house. The first train from his is an hour before church starts and often one of my excuses has been that it’s too difficult to get to church from his. But why am I so easy to make these excuses? Trust me it isn’t an easy thing and it really bugs me.
I just wish I could try and combine all the parts of my life into one easy package. But it doesn’t work like that.
Church seems just something that’s expected of you when you’re a Christian but I know so many people that have become disillusioned with it that maybe I sometimes find it difficult to connect with it myself. In the past church has been difficult and maybe that’s why I don’t place as much priority on it as I should.
This is probably one of those subjects that some people won’t understand but as I see it not going to church sometimes doesn’t make me any less of a Christian. I suppose I’m more afraid of being judged for not going sometimes, being seemingly less of a Christian for not spending those three hours of a Sunday at church.
I still believe in God, I haven’t ‘backslidden’ which is so often what people think when you haven’t been to church for a while.
It is simply a case of priorities at the end of the day but I do think there is a definite lack of support for those people who are finding it difficult to connect to church because of differing circumstances in their lives. Work is not Sunday-friendly. It is not a day that is solely concerned with the church as it used to be and maybe that is part of the reason for this disconnect within many Christians. Until there is a better solution, church can often remain a struggle for many and for those that do struggle to get there for those three hour services they may continue to struggle for a bit longer.
I am a Christian. I believe in God whole-heartedly. And I am struggling to get to Church on Sundays.
That is my truth at the minute.
claire/elizabeth/eades 