Our human perceptions affect our view of religion

I've been thinking a lot lately about pure religion and the church. Although I was looking through this churches website with questionable motives, this caught my eye.
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Church Wide- Car Care Ministry - 675 E. Fifth Street
The next Car Care Ministry for single Moms and widows is Saturday, Oct. 7th. Free oil changes and safety inspections. We will meet at Old Salem Domestic and Foreign Car Service 675 E. Fifth Street. Call for appointment
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James 1:27 "Religion that God or Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world."

why do all the wrong people get it? ... or are they really the 'wrong ones' after-all? Why does this church of any church get it? It doesn't fit my perception of what they should do right now.

What is it that makes us 'christians'? Is the market we shop in (christian aparel, music and books), the churches we attend, or is there something more? I'm starting to think that there's something more. I'm pretty convinced right now that you can have all the right words to say and the braclets you want, you can even go to church every sunday, but if your heart isn't right with the Lord you're like a duck out of water wattling alone in the barnyard.

That something more comes from 'working your salvation out with fear and trembling', from 'believing in your heart that Jesus is Lord and confessing with your mouth that God raised Him from the dead', its 'giving a cup of cold water' and 'taking care of the orphans'. Life is a process, learning to waddle with the Father takes time, patience and trust. I'm sure there's more, but I'm still kinda new, I'm just learning that you don't have to be perfect to be a real Christian. I think that's where grace comes in.

I don't want to be healed. I want to be loved.

I stand on this rock while the waves crash around me
The cold wind blows all around and I feel as though I've lost

When you hold me in your arms
That's when my world makes sense
Even when the waves crash around me
I know that you're still there

...and for some reason, that makes everything okay

...prayer changes things/prayer changes me.

I woke up around 8am. The sun was shinning with no homework to cloud the day. The start to a fantastic day. A fantastic day, that I couldn't get out of bed for. Although all around me was beauty, all I felt was pain. In that morning; those mornings, all I had to do was awaken to experience the pain I felt as I drifted off to sleep the night before, hoping somehow that it would disappear as I slept.

Growing up in church, I've been told over and over that prayer changes things. When God's people pray people are delivered from the messes they find themselves in. Living in a dirty world, its hard to stay clean sometimes. Learning to walk isn't a clean endeavor, and we've all fallen. However in these mornings I began to notice something. No matter how hard I prayed, I still experienced the pain, It took me a long time to recognize the deeper pattern that had been hiding beneath the surface.

When prayer didn't change my circumstances, prayer changed me. Through prayer I found the strength I needed to roll out of bed and get myself ready for another day. Another day to learn through the pain I felt from the view of my wheelchair. Through prayer I learned to see things differently and I was able to learn lessons otherwise ignored.

A lesson I was never taught in Sunday School. As the song goes "sometimes He calms the storm and other times He calms His child". I don't understand the way He moves, but I'm glad He still moves. And I'm glad He moves with grace and love through, and in His children.

"you need to sit down in your pews and listen up. The Lord is running to you. " were I think my exact words to a friend in commenting on the following song:
(all lyrics are as I remember the and may not necessarily be completely accurate)

"and then He ran to me
Took me in His arms
Held my head to His chest;
He said 'my sons come home again'
He looked at my face
Wiped the tears from my eyes
And with forgiveness in His heart
Said Son, do you know I still love you?
It caught me by surprise
It brought me to my knees
When God ran"

As much as we run from Him. As plastic as we've made His church. He still pursues us with His love and welcomes us home. And speaking of plastic, here's another song that's been on my mind lately.

"Are we happy plastic people
In our happy plastic steeple
With walls around our weakness
And smiles to hide our pain"

... ... ... and still another ... ... ...

"And if we are the body
Why aren't His arms reaching
Why aren't His hands healing
Why aren't His words teaching"

Although I'm not all about American Christian music there is some truth to be found and some wisdom to be gleaned.

Christ did not come and live a painless life so that we could have a new market to sell things in. Christ came and walked among real people with real pain and real brokenness. He is not afraid of our humanity! He can handle our brokenness and our messy lives. He can handle our questions and our doubts. My generation claims to value genuine honesty, I'm learning how messy that can be.

Sara Kelly spoke at school this week and her words on my generation and the church astonished me. She quoted a stat that 85% of the 20-somethings are walking away from the church; never to return. 85%! The church, as a whole, isn't being completely honest. The 20-somethings aren't interested in religion because its what their parents have. They don't care how great the song service is. Lip service all sounds the same when its not coming from a genuine heart.

After acknowledging all this, she encouraged us to not give up on the church. We don't have to be plastic Christians. Its okay to ask the big questions and to search for God. "Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives; he who seeks finds; and to him who knocks, the door will be opened"(Mt 7:7-8). Can we handle the fact that God doesn't fit into a box or into our concept of what we think He should be? The God of the Bible is much bigger than the god of American christianity; and He is worth every step of the pursuit.