Church Sucks!

A personal relationship with Jesus includes a public relationship with his people. Do you selfishly want the benefits without the burdens? ~ Mark Driscoll

YES!! YES!! YES!!  Can I get an Amen!

Church is hard.  Being motivated to go to church, exhausting at times.  Church is needed, but not always wanted.  Lately, I have been disappointed in God's people, including myself.  It's a fight with myself most Sunday mornings and Wednesday nights, convincing myself that it's better to go even with a not so right attitude than to not go at all, but then Satan begins to whisper in my ear, you hypocrite, big fat liar, be a false witness because you are a worthless Jesus follower.

Most of this frustration comes with the relationships or lack of relationships that I have with his people.   If I could just sing praises to him daily, be inspired by his word, feel the peace that he freely gives, then being a Jesus follower wouldn't be such a task.  But, we are thrown in with Judas's of our days who look to betray our trust, we are expected to mingle with the Thomas's who doubt what Jesus is doing in the church, and work along side the Martha's who are way to busy to focus on Jesus because of the task they have at hand.

My husband always call these people EGR people.  You know who they are, when you see them at church, you politely go the other way.  Never rude, never friendly, just avoid them if at all possible.  Extra (E) Grace (G) Required (R).  Funny thing about EGR's are guess what, I am someone's EGR.  Someone pretends that they need to go to the bathroom when they see me walking their way.  Someone talks about me and my annoying habits, my disrespectful comments, my long annoying conversations, and my lack of singing ability :)  That's hard to swallow, but the truth!  

We are called to Love God, Love Others.  Why couldn't it just be Love God.  I want to say I have the Love  God figured out. but if that was true loving others, loving his people wouldn't be such a burden!  Praying that God intervenes in the relationships that make it more of a burden than a blessing to be the Church.  Praying that if I'm the Judas, Thomas, or Martha that makes it impossible to worship God, than he gives me friends like Nathan to call me out on my behavior!  Until then, I'll continue to Believe all things are possible, Hope all things will be easy, and have Faith all things will work out.