Growing up I had two very distinct spiritual upbringings, before I turned 8 my family belonged to the Catholic Church. Both of my parents grew up in Catholic homes, completed all of their Sacraments, and were even married in the Catholic Church. However, at this point in their lives, in the late 90s, as my mother was digging deeper into her faith and my father was discovering his faith beyond the nominal sense, they decided it was time for a change.
We began going to a Nazarene Church in town, we all got “saved” and re-baptized. We spent our summers going to the church picnics, VBS, and summer camp. We got involved in Sunday school, youth groups, and young adult groups. We went on mission trips, sang songs, and drank the grape juice. I even completed a degree in Religion from a large protestant university.
It wasn’t until my early 20s while I was serving as an international missionary that I realized anything was off. As I was touring the world doing ministry in different countries I realized this common thread in many of the messages that were being preached from the pulpit on Sunday morning that didn’t quite jive with what I felt the Gospel was truly about and how the Church was intended to function. I could see this theme of prosperity being interwoven throughout sermons across the globe. The idea is that if you become a Christian, your life will be forever better, you will have wealth in all areas of life and you will never have to worry about anything ever again.
While there is immense wealth to the Gospel, most often this wealth is found in peace, joy, love, and community. Rather than monetary, social, or any other kind of wealth. And I just couldn’t get behind that message anymore.
So, it was at this time that I began my own search for the truth that my parents did years before. On that search, while I was doing an extended stint as a missionary in South East Asia, I found a Catholic Church and began attending there. What I found there would end up changing the trajectory of my life completely.
I would end up finding a Church that felt like home, that spoke the truth in love and had more substance than riding a feeling, until the feeling wore off, then hopping to the next church. I felt a sense of unity that I never felt before, knowing that there were millions of other believers all around the world, praying the same scripture verses on any given day in unified worship. And I found the most substantial aspect of the faith in that it literally converts the mystical into something you can hold in your hand and experience on a daily basis, in the Sacraments.
Now, I will dive deeper into these revelations in future posts, but for now, I just wanted to introduce myself a little bit and allow you to understand my background and why I believe what I believe and share that with you.
Until next time, may the Lord be with you.
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