I took a walk around town today, taking pictures of churches (in one corner of town) and other things in which I could see God's impact, even in spite of humans constructing over it.
The first church I went to once during sophomore year. I was helping out with a project that one of my friends was doing, and it involved little kids singing a musical based on the story of Jesus. My role was playing the accompaniment, completely decked-out on an electronic keyboard.
This one I've never seen before, and I don't know what denomination it is, but I like that rock statue in front. Nice imagery.
This church (at least I think it's a church) is on a corner of an intersection I drive through rather frequently, and I've still never really noticed this until now. You can see the cross on the window, but there's nothing else that really screams "church" besides that.
Another church I've been to exactly once, freshman year when the director of the lab choir I was in had us sing a Sunday morning service as a tune-up before the concert for the Advanced Choral Conducting class later that week. My first-year religion prof was also the pastor at this church. If you notice the sign (which you probably can't because the picture is too small) it says that this church, a Moravian church, is a Christian denomination. Really? I thought it was a Muslim denomination. Or a Buddhist denomination.
[02-17-2019 commentary: I realize now that that was a sarcastic comment, which, at the time I wrote it it seemed clear that others would pick up that it's a sarcastic comment. I feel the need to comment extra on it now because, almost 10 years later, this was not my first gut reaction. My reaction was: why did I feel the need to write it like that? The spirit of why I was pointing out the sign was due to the fact that, prior to my first exposure to the Moravian church, I had not known that it ever existed. And perhaps, it is for this particular reason that the Moravians feel the need to point out that, yes, it is a Christian church.]
Ah, All Saints [“http://n8daoggblog.blogspot.com/2006/10/my-choice-of-faith.html”]. This is the "E-church" [“http://n8daoggblog.blogspot.com/2006/10/e-church.html”] I went to on a semi-regular basis my junior year in college. I could say more, but I'm not sure what to include, or how "blog-worthy" it might be. So I'll leave it at that.
This is Trinity Lutheran. It's like 2 blocks from my house, but I've never gone. Something about the morning service starting at 9:00. It's a bit early for me. Also, I hear they only do communion once a month.
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This morning I listened to a sermon about the importance of focusing on God (and His love thereof) as opposed to the symbols of God (like the Bible, and other things). Usually when I go to St. John's [“http://www.stjohns-elca.org/“] I hear a lot about God's love and its importance, and somehow my mind flashed back this post [“http://josiah.blogware.com/blog/_archives/2003/2/22/72335.html”] from a friend's blog, and today how it connected to my Lenten devotion.
Another friend of mine with whom I've been in conversation over our respective spiritual journeys asked me what I was doing for Lent, and quite frankly I've been delaying a response because I don't know what to say. Growing up, Lent was a time in which I needed to go cold-turkey on something in order to show that I was being a good Christian. These days it has become much more fluid, largely because I've broken free of the institutional religion in which I was brought up. There's a difference between giving up sugar "because I don't need it" (i.e. just for show), and using Lent as a time to reflect and grow. There isn't a single thing that I have successfully given up or added per tradition; rather I've kind of experimented with different ways of bringing myself to God. I've done some Scriptural readings, I've had a couple really quiet evenings where I clear my mind so to let God enter. Today I decided to take pictures of what I saw, and it's a project I hope to continue.
Per the link of my blogging friend's post, he was given an assignment to take pictures of God's love as he saw it. That's the frame of mind (no pun intended) I'm trying to take right now. I don't know if taking pictures of churches is exactly it (I did take pictures of other things, too; I'm just not including it for this post). But I do know it's a start.
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