On the road to Aspermont

Check Your Mirrors

Come next week, the pew may call or a spot under a tree. Where’er I land on sabbath day the Spirit goes with me. – sjs

My respect for those whose faith still leads them to participate and commune with believers in a church setting is genuine and profound. You lead and you love. And you matter. My younger daughter, son-in-law, and two granddaughters attend a small church, a source of nurturing fellowship for all four of them as individuals and as a young family.

Thisisnotmychoicenow. I did not wake up one day and think that attendance was no longer necessary (or mandatory). Even with that questionable motive for showing up at church three times a week as a backdrop to my faith’s foundation, the rhythm of prayer and song and communion still exists in my life though in different ways.

On a recent Sunday morning, I woke up and wanted to have a good lunch, the kind I knew I could find at Hickman’s in Aspermont: the hot buffet, the cold salad bar, the rolls, the dessert of choice.

There was no dramatic revelation on that twentyfive- minute drive to Stonewall County. God did not blind me for not going to church, because church was going with me.

Churchtaughtmetopray. I did silently pray over that delicious meal and smiled when I saw the husband and wife across the way holding hands and giving thanks aloud.

Church songs taught me to think of others.

I let my little light shine by getting three of those delicious meals to go for a family I knew in Aspermont who had health issues.

Church taught me to tithe from the heart.

My waitress received an extra $20, not because I wanted to be flashy-cashy. It was my way of showing appreciation for her work on a day of rest.

It still comforts me to see cars and trucks and trucks-with-horse-trailers pulled up at St. Mary’s Catholic Church or the 5th and Elm Church of Christ or the local First Baptist or United Methodist building in any town.

Carry on and go worship for all the right reasons, especially the ones that involve love.

And know that I, too, share the Spirit’s love, not out of necessity but of healthy habits formed long ago when I was sitting where you are.

Snyder, Texas, native Sue Jane Sullivan is a retired schoolteacher whose thought-provoking commentary appears occasionally in several West Texas newspapers, including The Texas Spur and The Caprock Courier.