The following is a guest post from my other (and probably better) half.
photo courtesy of jeff sheldon | unsplash.com
So, if you know me, you know that I grew up as part of a Catholic family. I deeply value this background now that I am older, but when I was younger, I really struggled. Somewhere around the age of 14, I began to struggle with going to church. My parents, I think, saw this as me not liking religion and trying to escape, or even rebellion. In fact, I really struggled with the fact that I believed in Christ, but could not reconcile my experience of Him—show up to church, sit, stand, kneel, recite, repeat– to what I believed. I was so conflicted because I felt that the thing that I didn’t enjoy, didn’t understand, and couldn’t love was a requirement to what I believed. I hated this, and tried to reject Christianity, but couldn’t, no matter how I tried. When I found others that seemed to truly experience Christ in ways other than those that I was familiar with, I became intrigued. I have spent the last 15 years exploring those ways, but I have come up dry just like when I was 14. There is little difference in the Protestant way of Christianity and the Catholic way of Christianity. Alas, I am left with a desire that has gnawed at me for a long time, yet I have no resolution. So, after a long journey of study (which includes an M.A. in Theology) and years of exploration in Catholic and Protestant religious practice, I am ready to put aside my fears of what others think and put new thought to who Christ and His body are. In the coming days, I will be hijacking my wife’s blog to explore a little.
Will you join me?
click here for the entire series.
