Going to Church even when you'd rather sleep in

 

When I was young, I had a very typical church experience. I'd stay up past my bedtime on Saturday night watching movies and playing games my parents didn't approve of, wake up groggy and surly on Sunday morning, and mom would practically have to drag me down the stairs to get a bowl of cereal in me before we were off. 

In Sunday school I'd go through the motions. I'd recite bible verses between yawns, look at the flannelgraph through blurry eyes, and squeak through hymns with my awkward prepubescent voice. I thought of Church kind of like it was just a half-day of school, another weekly task to sit through.

Church never made me feel excited or electrified my spirit like it seemed to do for others. It was just something you had to do because all the grown-ups said so. It was fine, but by no means was it what I'd spend my day doing if it were up to me.

And eventually, it was. When I left home for university, there was nobody there who would bang on my door at 8:00am Sunday morning. Nobody dragging me down the stairs and asking me if I even tried to comb my hair and if I was really going to show up like that. The only one who had a say in whether or not I would go to church was myself. So I stopped going to church and started sleeping in. 

I spent my Sundays the way I always dreamed I would when I was sitting slack-jawed and bored-stiff in Sunday school. I hung around, played video games, watched TV, and barely lifted a finger all Sunday. It was everything I thought it would be... for the first few months anyway.

Slowly but surely, the novelty began to wear off. As is so often the case, what I thought would make me happy wasn't living up to the fantasy. Hanging around my dorm turned out to be just as dull as hanging around in Sunday school. Only now, I was bored, alone, and feeling kind of gross being coped up in my room all day.

More than that though, I was feeling spiritually tapped out. News stories about strife and suffering weighed on me like never before. Disappointments and failures felt catastrophic out of proportion to what they really were. I lost my center. 

In all the time I spent thinking about how dull Church could be, I never stopped to think about the simple value found in just being with your fellow Christians.  

So I started doing what would have been unthinkable when I was thirteen. I set my alarm, got up, brushed my teeth, found a fairly respectable shirt to wear, and headed off to a local chapel when I could have just as easily stayed in bed. 

Because Church isn't just a place where you hear the same old stories told over and over again. It isn't just a place where you wear a slightly uncomfortable tie and try not to let anyone see how tired you are from staying up the night before. It's a place you go to recharge spiritually. To gather with your fellow brothers and sisters in Christ and remind each other that we're all in this together, that we're all facing similar struggles and disappointments. That we all feel drained and defeated sometimes, but together in Christ we can overcome these hurdles.

Sleeping in is false comfort. It might be nice to stay under the covers, but it leaves you spiritually empty. Trying to fill the void with creature comforts and pointless distractions helps about as much as trying to top off your gas tank with water. 

When I go to Church, I might still be blurry-eyed and tired, but when I leave I feel comforted, relieved, and recharged, ready to face the week. That's a kind of rest that I think is worth waking up early for.