Grace

Tonight I attended my first High School Youth Group meeting.  I was told at one point that I looked like “a deer in headlights” and to be honest that is how I felt.  I am not the type of person that instantly feels comfortable in a new situation.  I have to assess the people and my surroundings for quite a bit of time before I am comfortable enough to speak freely.  Tonight’s topic of discussion was that You Tube video entitled “Why I hate Religion, but love Jesus.” 

 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1IAhDGYlpqY

I must say there are a lot of insightful teenagers at my church.  We broke down the poem as a group and talked about the parts that we liked and disliked. There are a many valid points made in this poem with which I agree.  There are a lot of hypocrites in this world that claim to be Christian, but only practice the lifestyle for an hour on Sundays.  They attend church, going through the motions, but ignore the message.  In no way do I claim to be perfect and I myself don’t always understand what I am hearing when I attend mass nor do I always take it to heart.  Deacon Mark reminded me tonight though that I don’t have to be perfect, He is going to love me anyway J. 

We asked the kids to define religion and the difference between religion and spirituality.  I had never really given it much though, but that is a difficult question.  It is easy to define your religion (Catholic, Baptist, Protestant, Methodist, etc.), but how do you define your spirituality?  When we broke into small groups I asked the kids what it was liked to be a Catholic in the “Bible Belt” as I have had some interesting experiences since I moved here – mostly on Ash Wednesday.  For the last three years I have attended mass in the morning and then spent all day responding to the question “You have something on your forehead.”  The kids expressed that it is hard for them, assumptions are made about them and their beliefs and it can be a struggle at times.  I think I am going to enjoy working with the Youth Group over the next months and getting to know them better.  I just hope I am able to teach them something in the process.
 

For the record my favorite part of the poem follows:

“Because if grace is water, then the church should be an ocean.
It’s not a museum for good people, it is a hospital for the broken
Which means I don’t have to hide my failure, I don’t have to hide my sin”