The story...
I moved to Duluth, MN, for one year, on a teaching assignment - yes, I've been a teacher. UMD welcomed me; the students asked me to join them in the stuff that students like to do; the church pulled me into their family; and I lived in a small apartment. One morning, the apartment manager asked me where I was going on the past Sunday morning. I told her that I was walking to church. She said: "I thought so, I saw you were carrying a bible." She was perplexed and a bit frustrated - "You're a professor, you don't have family here, and you're free to do whatever you want. Why would you go to church? We used to have to do that here; but, not anymore - I'm free to do whatever I want." I shared how it felt to be pulled into a welcoming church family who invited me into their homes and families. I even played "broom ball" and fished with some of them - "I feel loved there." She says: "huh, I might try church again."
I don't think that the only church in town would spend much time reminiscing about the "good old days" when everybody was expected to go to church and try to behave morally right. Teach me against my will and I'll be of the same opinion still - and likely continue to behave in ways that are more true to who I truly am deep down inside.
Just for today...
"I tried to get God to listen to me through my prayers. He did, once I stopped telling Him what to do." Hope for Today (p.44)
"I didn't like myself because I wasn't living up to what I believed to be true about others." Courage to Change (p. 44)
"Get yer own way, Yer stuck with you; Love together, We're a powerful force." Am I a Poet?