Why Church?

    The mother came in to arouse her sleeping son.  He needed to hurry
and get up as it was Sunday and it was nearly time for church.

     The son responded by whinning "Oh, mom, I don't want to go to
church today.  I would rather sleep in."

    She replied to her grumbling offspring by saying, "Now son, you
know you can't sleep in.  Now get up and get dressed."

    The young man countered saying, "Mom, I really don't want to go. 
You know how all those people are there at our church.  All they want
to do is fuss and fight and I can't stand it.  The only time that they
don't fuss is during the service and then it's only because half of
them are asleep.  Mom, give me three good reasons why I should bother
getting up to go to a church like that."

    The mother responded to her complaining son by saying, "Okay,
first of all, you know that they are all basically good people even
though they fight some.  Secondly, you know that they are learning and
it takes time for people to grow.  Lastly, son, you have to go as you
are the pastor.

    As an organization, the church is like no other.  When you look at
it on the surface, you might wonder why anyone in his right mind would
want to get up on their day off and get all dressed up just to go to a
meeting where all they do is sing a few songs and listen to some guy
give a speech.  Why not do something fun like go to the lake or go
shopping or even just lounge around the house?

    Of course everyone has their own reasons for going to church, some
good and some not so good.  There is the business man who goes to make
contacts for his enterprise.  Perhaps the older person who goes to
ease their conscience for things done in the past.  Or even the young
couple that drags their children to Sunday School just because the
influence "can't hurt them."  Like one father I heard say to his son,
"Religion is all alright if you don't take it too seriously."

    But for what other reason do we go.  First of all, because we
believe that God is indeed real and that we need a relationship with
his son Jesus.  Then too there is fellowship.  All week we are dealing
with people who often see things differently than we do and we need to
spend some time with others who see it like we do.  We also have a
need to serve others.  There is an old expression that says, "What
goes around, comes around."  If we want to have our personal needs
met, then we must be willing to be a blessing to someone else in their
time of need.

    Think about your reasons for going to church.  If they stack up as
not so good, don't quit going but rather look for ones that are
better.  As Jesus put it in Matthew 5:20, "For I say to you, that
unless your righteousness exceeds the righteousness of the scribes and
Pharisees, you will by no means enter the kingdom of heaven."

Frank Cooke