On our couple’s blog, I posted a comparison between a church and a gym. This is a part 2.
Recently, a friend of mine went to the gym (the same one where I am a member) and her purse was stolen.
Unfortunately, bad things happen in churches, too. The reason is simple, really: Christians are messy. It’s true. We are a messy bunch.
Mike Yaconelli wrote a book called Messy Spirituality. 
It was one of the first books I read about spirituality. One of the first non-fiction books of my life; and I was hooked. But this book is all about those crazy disciples who were a mess as they followed the very in-the-flesh savior. To parallel the disciples’ stories, he tells tales about modern-day messy Christians. He even tells of his own messiness.
Christians have been messy from the start; and that’s the beauty of it. Christians mess up. We suck at life, sometimes. We fail miserably. But we are forgiven; we have Christ to show us the way and, if we’ll let Him, He will show us the way.
When we join a Christian community, we should not expect things to be all peachy-keen. But we should expect to find support, guidance, and forgiveness. Unlike a gym where forgiveness does not abound, a church family should always grow in love and grace.
And the purse may never be seen again.