Out of Sorts - A Lenten Devotional - Week 5

“ But a few years later, I was at the point where I wanted to skip church every Sunday. I had just lost another baby before birth. I felt I couldn’t go to church because there was no roof for my grief or my questions or my doubt there. In a tradition that was filled with victory and the shiny, happy joy of properly answered prayers and neat equations, I felt I didn’t belong. I was lamenting, questioning, I was grieving, I was doubting everything I thought I knew about God and myself and the Church.” ~ Sarah Bessey

In these chapters, Sarah Bessey talks about claiming herself and being confident in being what I would call a “spiritual mutt”. In her process of growing up as a Christian, leaving the church because she felt she didn’t belong and then reclaiming her faith as an adult, she has found meaning in many different ways of understanding God and worshipping God. She speaks in tongues but prays liturgically and doesn’t fit into one tradition or denomination or understanding of what it means to be a Christian.

I think this is so freeing for all of us. I have congregants come to me and say they want to be a part of this church or become a member or get involved in a leadership role but they can’t because of x, y or z. And these things are normally that they feel they are too different or they don’t think what everyone else thinks or don’t act like everyone else acts. Pastor Alex and I are very intentional about making these people realize they are exactly the type of people we want in this community. God loves us all uniquely and it is in our uniqueness that we are able to gift the world. It makes much more sense that we all don’t fit one mold, especially one made by a very homogenous group of people from a culture we no longer understand. I hope people feel permission, acceptance and even encouragement to bring all of who they are into the church and their relationship with God.