“Have I told you yet that I’m not sure if I’m a Christian?”
writes Andrea in the comments on my post about my first Lent. “I
vacillate and ponder and struggle every day with my spirituality.” Sharing that
she is a convert to Catholicism who attends mass regularly she continues, “I
change my beliefs like my underwear. I told the priest that I would be the
worst Catholic he ever had and I didn’t lie. I took an online test – perhaps on
Beliefnet – and Catholicism came it at 23rd for me. 23rd! I know you’re hoping
for this to be an open ‘safe’ sanctuary for people to exchange their spiritual
musings so I’ll check in daily and spread the word not THE WORD because I don’t
know where I stand on that yet…”

A few hours later Julya chimed in…

“I, more so than Andrea, am so far from ‘mainstream faith’,
but Sociology does suggest that a culture needs something like a family and
something like a religion,” she said. “Its a nice sentiment to view your
suggestion of locking arms and wandering together. Thanks for being inclusive
to those who are not necessarily reformed, or born again. People who hold
beliefs differing from yours. That’s dialogue. As for the topic at hand-Lent. I
have to say I never understood just giving something up. What’s the point? Why
not take it to the next level-which makes more of an impact upon humanity-and give
it to someone who needs it, never had it, or could use it!”

Then Gigi wrote, “I was raised in the church, my mother made
us go every Sunday. I am not sure when I stopped going (maybe 14 yrs old) but I
do remember how important it was for me to find a church when we decided to
have a child. I have never participated in Lent. I could say it’s because I
never finish what I start, I could say it’s something that I don’t understand.
Instead I’ll admit the truth. I struggle everyday with being a child of God.
Not because I don’t believe, because I do. It’s because I don’t always feel
worthy and I also feel like I would be doing it for all the wrong reasons.”

These are my kind of people asking my kinds of questions! 

We’ll unpack more about Lent as we move toward Holy Week, but
these fantastic comments (and many more in response to my first two posts) left
me thinking that we should spend some more time getting to know each other and
where we’re coming from in terms of our relationship with God, religion, the
church. So tell me – what’s your story?