Church, the final adventure

by Richardson Family

There’s nothing I love more than visiting different Christian Science churches while on vacation. But when we were in Guatemala, I have to say, the long trip from Lake Atitlan to Guatemala City seemed intimidating.

My family traveled on the weekends and that left me to make the trip alone. Travel advisories on the web labeled Guatemala City as the most dangerous city in Central and South America.

After several weeks of avoiding church, I took some time alone to ask myself “What is keeping you from going?” It was fear—and a bit of entropy. Just the night before I’d watched the movie “Troy” with Brad Pitt. While it wasn’t my favorite flick, it caused me to think about all the different gods the Greeks worshipped. Was I allowing fear to be a god?

And the entropy? On the one hand, my little cottage, surrounded by lush vegetation, peering out over a pristine lake seemed like the perfect place to pray alone with God. Why make the trip?

But when I thought more deeply, I remembered from experience, that the true test of our spiritual understanding comes from our practice. And church is a wonderful place to practice the art of loving.

With a new confidence that I could expect my trip to church to be filled with friendship, adventure, and love, I started out on my two day journey. It comprised of a hike, a boat ride, a van through the mountains, and then finally, the next day, a taxi cab from Antiqua to Guatemala City.

On that last taxi ride, the cab driver told me his wife suffered from an illness and the doctors couldn’t find a cause. We had a chance to talk about Christian Science and I shared a copy of Science and Health in Spanish with him. It worked out just perfect for him to pick me up after church, as he had another run that would bring him back to the neighborhood at the same time church was getting out.

In the meantime, I arrived early to church, before the building was even opened. The corner stores were barracaded with gates. I saw that the customer stood outside the stores, giving his order through the gates, and then cashier handed them their groceries after being paid. It was a very different picture than our vacation home at Lake Atitlan.

And for the first time, I met a young man through the bars whose face seemed hard or cynical. I felt such gratitude for the Christian Science church in that community, knowing that their prayers were touching everyone. Perhaps my trip to church was really my practice of church, as it gave me so many opportunities to pray and embrace others. Instead of thinking how I’d spent X number of hours getting to a service that lasted just one hour, I saw that church is a way of living, not just a building we visit once or twice a week.

When the door to church opened, I was greeted by the most genuine people. I felt that they were as happy to see me as I was to see them. Their Sunday service included a short testimony meeting afterward. And I was able to purchase copies of El Heraldo de la Christian Science there to share with others.

Then, later that afternoon, one family from church came to my hotel in Antigua. We spent a wonderful afternoon together!

In most cases, attending church in the States may not seem like the same adventure, but I’ve thought since then about the different, quiet suggestions that try to keep me from attending church. No matter where we are though, “Church is a wonderful place to practice the art of loving.” Better still, church is practicing the art of loving. And that’s a terrific adventure no matter where you are!

This entry was posted on Friday, October 19th, 2007 at 1:19 pm and is filed under Christian Science. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response.