Important message

I will admit that oftentimes my desire to go to church is more self-indulgent than it maybe should be. I just feel better, whether I get anything out of the service or not, I feel good about having gone. I realize that this is far from the best reason to go to church. I am partly ashamed to admit that going to feel better was my reasoning this past weekend, but that’s the truth of it.

Luckily for me, I was also able to carry away a great message. Despite what seemed like constant reminders to the wiggly three-year old next to me to sit still and be quiet, I was actually able to listen to part of the service. (This is likely a direct result of the fact I bring snacks to keep her still and quiet so I can actually listen, but I digress … )

Anyway, the sermon was about three businessmen who meet once a week to meditate and pray. After more than a year of meeting, one of the men confessed that he felt as though he knew less about meditation and prayer than he did when he began meeting with the other two. A second man chimed in that he, too, felt that he was getting more confusion than peace out of the process lately. The third business man told a story.

He came from a family of farmers in Minnesota. Every year, they would plant corn and pray for rain. He said it was the best feeling when it rained right after planting season. So good that you wanted to go out and dance in it. Then they would do something that seemed strange. They would all pray for dry weather, and they would pray harder for dry weather than they had for the rain. The reason they would do this was because the rain would give the roots a chance to grow long, but when there was a dry spell after the rain, the top root would have to grow down to find water. If the dry spell doesn’t come after the rain, the top root doesn’t grow down, but out. If the dry spell comes too late, the top root hasn’t learned to dig down for more water, making the plant weak.

Here was his point: Our spiritual journeys are much like the corn with the rain. At first, when we start praying, we feel really good about what we’re doing; we feel like we’re really connecting to God. It’s something new and different. Some of our prayers are likely answered and we feel that connection growing stronger. Then comes a dry spell. We still pray and do what we’re supposed to, but we’re not getting the same satisfaction from the same actions. What God is trying to do is get us to dig our roots in deeper. Find the water by looking harder rather than just giving us everything we ask for. He does this so that when a dry spell does come and we’re faced with something really difficult in our lives, we know where to go to survive.

As he began to close his sermon with a prayer, Bailey dropped the remaining contents of her snacks onto the floor. I spent the rest of the prayer on the floor cleaning up a mess and trying my hardest not to be embarrassed by the loud clanking of the dish on the hardwood and subsequent splattering of cheesy goldfish below our feet and beyond.

But there was that moment of something real I was able to take away from it. I left thinking that maybe it’s not such a bad thing to go just to feel better. It probably shouldn’t be my reason the majority of the time, but at least it gets me there.