Psalm 119:176 And should I wander off like a lost sheep--seek me! I'll recognize the sound of your voice.
When I was growing up, I had a friend who lived down the road from me. She grew up attending the Immanuel Community Church on Concord Heights and I grew up attending the United Baptist downtown. And like my father growing up at UBC, her parents grew up at the church she attended.
When I got my driver's license, Debbie and I decided to leave our 'growing up in' churches to travel around NH, VT, ME and MA to see what else there was. And, besides, our home churches were old and boring and made up mostly of people our parents generation or older and we knew other churches had to be more exciting or more something. We just knew it.
I don't even know what we were looking for, if anything, but for three years she and I went to different churches of all kinds in various places. We also met some interesting people with interesting practices, especially at the Unitarian Church we went to.
However, after never settling anywhere and a little more mature, we came back and discovered our home churches weren't so bad. And as time went on, we both got married and went our separate ways, (her to a Navy base in SC and then on to KY) but we both have stayed active and raised our children in the church.
I don't know if I wandered away from God using 'a new church every Sunday' as an excuse to avoid commitment to him or if I was actually lost. He let me wander, but always watched me even when I acted like a foolish sheep. He kept his eye on me and never let me fall permanently into the 'non-Christian church'. He herded me back to him, to his church, where he keeps me safe.
Nancy
