You'll Be Glad You Did

I’ve learned a lot about churches since beginning this project, and I’ve also learned or re-learned some things about myself and what is important to me.  

I’ve discovered that having a connection at church can make the whole week go easier. 

I’ve seen that music and message can go hand in hand, and sometimes one strikes home much more than the other.

I’ve seen incredible warmth and depth of spirit.

I have also learned, however, that sometimes I am not a social person.  Sometimes the thought of being in a room full of people, no matter who they are, is more than I can or want to handle.  I may not be sad or tired or anything other than just wanting quiet and a little bit of solitude.

But I still want church.  I still want God. 

St. Patrick’s Day was one of those days this year.   I had been dithering and stalling, trying to decide which church to attend, and finally realized I just didn’t want to be around people other than my family.   I’ve been working on this project long enough to have a pretty good list of places I’d like to visit, and online services that have been recommended.   This Sunday, a friend just happened to post a link on Facebook to one of those recommended churches, and a series they were doing called, “You’ll Be Glad You Did.”  With a title like that, and my friend’s comment that it was worth the watch for couples, I was intrigued.

And, perhaps, a little relieved. 

Northpoint Community Church, with its main campus in Alpharetta, Georgia, would be considered a mega-church.  I read one link that said it was founded in 1995 as a church the un-churched love to attend.  The message in "You'll Be Glad You Did Part II"?

Husbands and wives submit to each other.

Obviously this is a hot-button topic.  One that isn't that popular in today's modern society, and I'm not sure anyone except men enjoyed it when all we'd hear was, "Wives submit to your husbands..." and the rest of the verses went away.

Here is the whole thing, Ephesians 5:22-30:  ²² Wives, submit yourselves to your own husbands as you do to the Lord. ²³ For the husband is the head of the wife as Christ is the head of the church, his body, of which he is the Savior. ²⁴ Now as the church submits to Christ, so also wives should submit to their husbands in everything.  ²⁵ Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her ²⁶ to make her holy, cleansing^[a] her by the washing with water through the word, ²⁷ and to present her to himself as a radiant church, without stain or wrinkle or any other blemish, but holy and blameless.²⁸ In this same way, husbands ought to love their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself. ²⁹ After all, no one ever hated their own body, but they feed and care for their body, just as Christ does the church— ³⁰ for we are members of his body.

                                                                                                      

The part that struck me the most, watching the video, was a diagram like the one above.  He spoke about wives submitting to their husbands, of course.  Few churchgoers will be unfamiliar with that particular part of the Bible.  However, he also talks about husbands submitting to their wives.  He said that submission is the act of putting the other person, their needs and wants and goals, ahead of one’s own.  He talked about how marriage is to be mutually submissive, with both partners submitting first to God.   It is a marriage of three beings, with submission to God being primary.  The push-pull of the marital submission is one that will remain with me long after I am done with this blog.