Posted by:
rogertheshrubber
(
)
Date: October 28, 2013 11:39AM
This is a conversation I had with my TBM father at least 20 times during my last decade in the church:
Roger: I feel so uncomfortable at church. I disagree with at least half of what is said, and I only feel the spirit once every few months.
Dad: You are looking at church the wrong way. We don't come to church to feel good. We come to serve other people, and to focus on something other than ourselves. I don't 'like' church a lot of the time, either, but I keep going to purify myself."
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But wait, doesn't the BoM promise us that when we will be filled with the Holy Ghost when we are following the commandments? Shouldn't I have more than a fleeting good feeling every few months? Shouldn't god do everything he can to confirm to me that I am in the right place?
No. Church is supposed to be suffering. You are not supposed to feel happy at church.
If all of us at the ward building are filled with the Spirit, how come we disagree on almost every doctrine, to the point that we have to water down LDS teachings to even less than the bullet points contained in the Gospel Principles manual? Why would the Spirit move one person to think that compassion means hating homosexuality (but loving the sinner), while it moves me to think that compassion means accepting homosexuality?
And, wait, if I am miserable here, and it seems that others around me are miserable (hiding it behind fake smiles), how am I serving them by being here? Wouldn't it be a lot kinder to all of us if we didn't HAVE to be somwhere that we are all miserable.
Being at church is supposed to be hard. It isn't a break. It isn't a SABBATH. It is all about retrenchment and strengthening the organization.
None of this made any sense to me. It still doesn't.
Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 10/28/2013 11:49AM by rogertheshrubber.