» "Conveying That Faith Is A Most Ordinary Thing" - John Meacham

My wife and I are at the very beginning of this particular journey.

Our children are four and two, and to them church—they call it “little church�—is a lovely nursery at our New York City parish, though they love leaving through the big nave, past a mosaic of St. George slaying the dragon, while the choir rehearses between masses. (We go to an early service.) Still, I have given a lot of thought to the questions ahead.

I am, I should note, a sacramental Christian, not an evangelical one. I do not have what many people I know and respect have: what is called “a personal relationship with Jesus Christ.�

Thus begins a really interesting read by Newsweek editor John Meacham on the "On Faith" blog of the Washington Post.

What makes this interesting, to me, is the combination of that which I fail to relate to and that which is all too recognizable. What I find curious about this is Meacham's frankness in stating that he goes to church, is eager for his kids to see faith as ordinary ... yet does not have a personal relationship with Christ. On the other hand, the reason this sticks with me is that I recognize this story as a bit too similar in that of my parents.

As in Meacham's tale, we would go to Episcopalian church while me and my sister were young. I don't remember us going to a church before we moved to Mississippi, but for some reason or another, Mom & Dad were and still consider themselves Episcopalians. Years later, in my own journey, I would realize the importance of having that personal relationship ... to the point of recognizing it as central to anything considered "faith" or "religion" as I knew it. Anything else, to me, was just habit and ritual.

In those early years as a newly-minted born again believer, I realized that Mom & Dad weren't anywhere near the same page as I was. So much of what Meacham writes reminds me of what they might very well have been thinking when they trotted me and the sis off to church every Sunday, though. And while I still have problems with Meacham's view of faith, there's still some good that comes from it.

One of the things that I've enjoyed most about Lakewood is that, as an institution, it does a great job of teaching you that different people with different gifts, different views, and different ways of relating to God all come together in the Body of Christ. And yet, Meacham's tale indicates that there's still more to understand in terms of how people relate to Christ (or, in Meacham's case ... tries to).

I've never been one to relate by means of tradition or routine, as Meacham seems to. But I don't write it off as anything less than my own sometime-experiential, sometime-intellectual, sometime-spiritual means of relating. But the point that Meacham goes through all the trouble without realizing that personal relationship still confounds me.

In any event, I thought this was an interesting read. Give it a once-over if you feel so moved and see what you come away with.