"We all have that friend who endured a shitty ‘romance’ for many years before it finally went down in merciful and excruciating flames, and now they practically spit pickle brine when someone mentions the possibility of a new love.
I don’t think that’s too far from how I feel about church.
Which makes sense. Church and love are the two places we open ourselves up wide, where we trust people to care for the most tender, hopeful, and defenseless parts of our hearts as if they were their very own.
Which makes sense. Church and love are the two places we open ourselves up wide, where we trust people to care for the most tender, hopeful, and defenseless parts of our hearts as if they were their very own. And just like love, sometimes that trust is misplaced. Sometimes the people we let in later reveal themselves to be sick to their very souls, manipulative, or darkly wounded. Sometimes it goes horribly wrong.
The natural, healthy response is to kick that person out and lock the door, then brick the opening over so they can never get back in. A battered and abused heart needs the time and space and quiet to heal. Often that’s the only way.
But then later, much later, a new love shows up. Or a new church. One who seems very different from the last. One who seems to know how to care gently. What do you do? How do you know?
I went to church today, and I liked it. And that scares me."
(Mark Love)
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