i am a c.

Let me share with you all a little something I learned tonight. It goes like this:

I am a C! I am a C-H! I am a C-H-R-I-S-T-I-A-N! I have C-H-R-I-S-T in my H-E-A-R-T, and I will L-I-V-E-E-T-E-R-N-A-L-L-Y!

Faster now!!

I am a C! I am a ....!

Yeah. Dee-lightful. I'm not gonna lie--on the way home, I'm kinda glad that the kid got fussy every time the song changed, forcing us to shout, spell, and repeat. Saved me the trouble, and the embarrassment of asking for multiple iterations of a song written for 5-10 year-olds.

Sometimes, being the new kid stinks. It's as though all of these people have a secret club full of stories and songs I've never heard. Then again, sometimes, as tonight, being the new kid is A-OK.

I get to giggle, and shout out lyrics like a child, enjoying them as an adult. Knowing to savor them. Knowing just how much He delights in me delighting in Him.

My faith can be very serious. I write these serious posts. I read these serious books. And have these serious conversations. I feel the weight of a serious God. I think serious thoughts. It's all very heavy now and again.

And that's fine, and that's good. I like that I understand that some things are real, and that they should be taken seriously. I like that I'm not "casual" about what I believe (even when I believed some very different things about Jesus), but have been committed to the idea that Truth matters. I like that I've never thought church to be some panacea for life's ills, divorced from conviction. That's good. I like those things very much.

But. Tonight, I had fun, and that was also fine, and good, and necessary. I laughed like a child, and sang like a child, to a child's song. It was a wonderful moment with my Father.

I wonder what it would be like to grow up in the church. To know all of these songs. To know the ends to all of these tales of the Old Testament.

As I sang this little spelling song, I thought about how grateful I am for these moments. God, you are so good. This isn't how I imagined my life unfolding, but You are good.

I am in fact growing up in the Church.