Rainy Days and Sundays

           

            It is not uncommon for Sundays to be my busiest day of the week, depending on how the schedule falls. Today was one such day. Between church commitments, homeless hosting duties (complete with cot set up and meal preparations) and a litany of other church related propositions, well, it was a busy one before my feet hit the floor, and that was before you factored Super Bowl festivities and weather shifts guaranteed to keep me tied up with church things for the better part of the day.

            While driving home (a full 12 hours from when I left it earlier this morning) I pondered the future of church attendance in general. Real easy to justify staying in, what with 7 fuzzy pups in the basement and a litany of critters needing my attention. Add to this the fact that I actually live in a church, well, if any one could justify it, I could, and some Sundays I do.

            But seems I’m not the only one justifying. According to Pew Research (good name for a church study group, don’t you think?) church attendance in America is on a steady decline and even for those of us who claim membership at a particular church, we aren’t going regularly, so what’s up with that?

            Where are we getting our spiritual fix?

            Meanwhile, as personal attendance drops, television viewership of religious and spiritual programming seems to be holding its own thanks to the Joel Osteens and Joyce Meyers of the world. Toss in best sellers like Rick Warren with his “Purpose Driven Life” and it’s clear we’re showing up somewhere --if not in traditional settings, then perhaps in the privacy of our own homes and lives, which begs the question: When did this change?

            To me, spirituality is not a Sunday-only thing, so much as it’s a way of life—a lens through which we view our everyday interactions, choices and decisions. True, Sundays may find me gathering with like minded seekers, but were that to go away, I’d like to think it wouldn’t take living in a church to have me living with Spirit in mind each and every day…after all (and especially on a farm) it’s everywhere I look.