I hate to be right

Sunday, November 06, 2005

I hadn't been to Sunday morning church service in awhile...so this weekend, while I was at home in Sarnia, I went to church with my family. I think my mom was pretty excited to have the whole family together and sitting in our pew. But I must admit, that although it was great to be with my family, I was having a terrible time staying awake during the sermon. Maybe it was just from being out of practice with the whole Sunday morning routine, or the fact that I was tired from dominating the world after killing everyone in Risk the night before, but I continually found myself dozing, no matter how hard I fought.
All of a sudden, the preacher said something that struck me, right in the forehead. It was not one of those 'Hallelujah, wave your hands in the air, Praise Jesus' kind of revelations, but the one were you have a dumfounded look on your face and you find yourself thinking wtf (what the frig). Maybe I was dozing and missed the main point or insight, but here's a brief paraphrase of the message: "Sure, living the Christian life isn't alway easy, heck, it can be downright brutal at times. No one said it would be a walk in the park. And yes, reading the Bible is boring and difficult for even the most hardcore believers. Church is even a place that becomes routine and commonplace, nothing exciting. And yeah, the partying lifestyle is thrilling and fun, but we Christians can rest assured and get through each day knowing we're right."
We're right? Right.
Personally, in discussion, I live to be right. It's annoying, I know, but I love when people say "oh Rachel, you are right." It's a great feeling. But what a silly way to live life, always striving to be right, always to get people to agree with what you think, always having to have the last word. You will never get anywhere in life if you are constantly trying to prove your degree of right-ness. It's useless, you're bound to end up wrong sometime.
In my life, I don't go to church out of a desire to be right, to gain a point in God's good book, or jewel in a heavenly crown. I don't read my Bible to spit out condemning verses to 'sinners' or to bask in the knowledge that I've got things all figured out. I don't try to follow Jesus because I want to be right. Moreover, I don't think I lead that boring of a life either. Yes, I know I'm a bit of a nerd, but this nerd knows how to have a good time. Jesus isn't boring. My faith doesn't make me a fun-sucker.
Perhaps the way you approach things taints your perspective. If that preacher was talking about rules and religion, that's not something I want to be right about. If right is the goal, I think we've completely missed the point.
We should all hate to be right...right?

posted by Rachel Pede @ 11:52 PM   3 comments