Building My House Once

"Don't build your house on a sandy land
Don't build it too near the shore
Oh it might be kind of nice 

But you'll have to built it twice.

You'll have to build your house once more."  

I'm sure there are other readers out there, who heard this song as a child.  Whether you heard it in a relative's car like me, at a children's event at your church, or belted it out around the house, I'm guessing if you're anything like me, it's starting to have a new meaning now that it didn't back then.  As a young college-grad in my 20s, I am just starting to "build my house," both literally and symbolically.  Now is the time to make sure our houses are built on solid ground.  To make sure our homes, and our lives, are routed in the Lord.

As mentioned in the previous entry, this is a bit of a challenge for me, but a challenge I am facing head on!  As I've heard, "God comforts the disturbed and disturbs the comfortable."  Well, I've been comfortable and now God is disturbing me! He is telling me to look for more.  Telling me that it is time to take the next big leap.  The uncomfortable one.  The scary one.  He is reminding me of the people who don't live with the same comforts as I enjoy.  He is inviting me into His presence, into His fellowship.

In his autobiography "My Life On The Rock," Jeff Cavins describes the period during which he was leaving the Catholic Church in the following way:

In a funny way, none of my problems with the Catholic Church were doctrinal or theological at this stage.  It was all experiental. 

 

His words could be a summary of my current feelings.  I have no problems with the doctrine or theology of the Church.  In fact quite the opposite.  I agree with the doctrine and theology.  I have loved my opportunities to study and teach theology.  I have found the readings of Pope John Paul II's Theology of the Body beautiful and inspired.  I have turned to the Catechism as means of answering questions.  I have allowed Saints to become my confidantes.  I have anxiously put off the Sacrament of Reconciliation, then beamed with joy as I left the Confessional.  But sometimes the experiences are lacking - the lack of fellowship in a Church, the lack of continuity in parishioners, the seeming nonexistence of anyone else below 30 in the pews.  Fellowship is not the reason for Church, it cannot be the Bread with nourishes our life.  But sometimes I want some condiments.  Sometimes I want a human friend with whom I can share my struggles.  Not someone to replace my relationship with Christ, but someone to help strengthen it.  Someone to point me in the right direction.  I want to experience Christ in community.