Do I have to go?

Do Christians have to go to church?  It’s a longstanding question.  I answer here from the perspective of blessing.  Basically, church can wear me out, but for good reason.  With church comes an excitement I love that can lead to a Sunday afternoon nap.  One particular Sunday morning, the Lord poured blessings through the song “Amazing Grace.”  How many thousands of renditions of the song have been offered over the years?  God designed this one for guitar and oboe within a small congregation.  We were solely instrumental at first, joined later with lyrics.  The Lord planted the idea for this instrumental version months ahead, as we sorted through earlier attempts to play the song and found it unfitting until this particular Sunday.  As the traditional melody floated through some ad libs here and there, I looked for the Lord.  He adjusted my embouchure to compensate for my lack of warmup between venues.  He led my fingers to notes on the oboe that blended with my husband’s on the guitar.  He gave flexibility to our group in watching for cues to wait or move ahead.  Within one heart, particularly mine, in maybe less than 15 minutes, the Lord blessed in multiple ways.  Over all, He showed how He prompts an idea and carries it through.  Regularly I ask Him to sing through my oboe, and though I don’t play so much anymore and I’ve lost much of the technique I used to have, He gives a sense of His presence in the resonance through the horn.  Experiences like this are invigorating.  Put together a morningful of blessings that seem to stretch the heart to a new capacity, and sometimes it’s almost too much to handle.  Sometimes I wonder if my knees will buckle and I’ll melt under the weight of blessing.  Yet why would I want to live without blessings that so wonderfully impact my whole being?  Am I forced to attend church?  No.  But God blesses immensely through the church.  Not every Christian has the physical means to travel to a church’s meeting place.  But if you can travel, I encourage all to ask the Lord to lead you.  It’s not a matter of checking an attendance box.  I hope you’ll attend because you want to know the Lord in the midst of the church.  I’ve prayed for you already.