I Am the Church, You Are the Church...

Three personal pet peeves of Christian culture:
1) The word "just" as used in public prayer. "Lord I just, I just thank you for just all your goodness and just all the thing's you've made and that you're just always vigilant in caring for our needs and we just..."
AHHHHHHH, I JUST want to scream "You must stop! My ears are bleeding!" Is satan using these syntax faux pas to ruin public prayer for me? Probably. Does that mean we can't all try harder to exercise our right to employ well-thought-out sentences, even in prayer without using "just" to the same effect as one would use the word "duh"? Nay, I say! I hear "Lord I duhhhhh, I duhhhh thank you for duhhhhhh..." I really do know God doesn't care what our prayers sound like on whit, and no, I'm not asking public pray-ers to wax poetic and deliver these "perfect" prayers but I pray of you, just leave out the "justs."

2) The title of this entry refers to the most putrid song I have ever been forced to sing, memorize, and repeat in my life. This song is first on my list of songs I cannot stomach. Second place? "What the World Needs Now...Is Love Sweet Love," "It's a Small World," and "Puppy Love."

3) When people ask for prayer about something and never get back to you on how the whole shebang worked out for them! Which leads me to my point: I practiced my own dang pet peeve. I enlisted almost everyone who reads this blog to pray that I find a good church in San Diego. Well, I found one...about a month ago. And I forgot to tell you. I am so sorry.

It's called "Flood Church" and it is amazing. It was one of the first of 15 I tried here in San Diego during my church shopping and I liked it when I first attended it. It had mixed races, mostly my age attendees and the sermon was rock solid. I'm really embarrassed to say that the most off-putting issue was the music. Even as late as 10 A.M., the band's precussion reverberating through the room so my cheastbone pulsed along was just too much. I couldn't hear myself sing and I didn't like it. Period. So I kept shopping.
Well, a little over a month ago, two new girls entered my life. Lindsey and Annie are from NE too and, like I was, they were all over the church scene right away. Unlike me, they alighted on Flood Church by chance, attended, and loved it. And for reasons of morning-intolerance, they decided that night church would be best so we started attending at 7:00 P.M., now 8:00 P.M. What a difference! I was much more awake, relaxed from having the entire morning and day all to myself to get things done and this way the music wasn't nearly so jarring, the sermon sunk in a little bit more, and it's pretty much church, off to bed, rise Monday morning spiritually charged for my week. I have no doubt in my mind that it wasn't pure coincidence that these girls just happened to choose Flood as their church, I think God wants me there and there are lots of service opportunities, bible studies, and community things for me to get involved in. Thanks Lindsey and Annie for reinvigorating my appreciation for this great church and for being someone I can pal around with.
(Bonus: check out their videos sometime, they're of the church's work in Malawi and some skits done at church, I like The Exorcism by the hip hop group http://diveintoflood.com/videos/)

All it all, it's exactly the answer to prayer I've been looking for. Thank you all for talking to God about this on my behalf and again, I'm sorry that some of you had to ask before I updated you on this.
Also, I'm a TERRIBLE prayer warrior (I am, I usually start praying and then without warning, my thoughts turn into a grocery list) but practice makes perfect, and I would love to try to pray for any of you if you have any sort of prayer request or even a praise. Big or small, seemingly silly or pretty serious. Leave it as a comment to this post or e-mail me at mschude2@bigred.unl.edu God'll take your requests and I'd be happy to be the courier.