What It's All About
Oct 12, 2006
May I encourage you to read Rod Dreher's account of his conversion from Catholicism to Orthodoxy? It's not important as relates to denomination, rather it is a well-written account of coming into the light of Christ after a season in the desert. What is most remarkable, however, is how Mr. Dreher acknowledges his own responsibility for abandoning Catholicism even as he examines the disappointment and disillusionment he suffered at the hands of his Church. But here is the heart of the matter:
I had made in my life till that point the fundamental error of conceiving of the Church as an end in itself, rather than a means to the end of becoming a saint in Christ.
I've made this mistake and often. It is so easy to stare at the altar and see only the sins of the people who serve at it. Humans have a funny way of failing to live up to one's expectations. But that's exactly why we need to focus on Christ, instead.
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That is so true. I talk to people all the time that refuse to go to church because of the mistakes of others there. I do not go to church because I like the people there, or because I have some false notion that our pastor has some special connection to God. I go because it allows me to remember that life is not about me, not about my pleasure but about a God that is capable of loving even the most dysfunctional of all his creation.