Disengaged

I've mentioned before that I was disengaging from my church this summer. I've said we would be playing Sunday mornings by ear, with no particular plan from one week to the next. We'd fulfilled our commitment to serving in the church bookstore until the end of May, so yesterday was our first Sunday of this new era. I had wondered all week whether we would go to church or not, but in the true sense of playing it by ear, we were not really sure.

Yesterday morning we stepped outside at the usual time (just a little behind schedule) and both of us were immediately wowed by the beautiful weather. I mean, it was near perfect. The morning sun, the cool breeze. Nothing about that moment made us want to go into a windowless cave where there would be an amped up early morning rock concert in progress (aka, a worship service at church).

"It's a shame we have to miss all this," said the wifey.

"But we don't," said I, leading her down the primrose path to a churchless Sunday.

So we stayed home. Sat in the yard and read our books, soaking in the sunlight and the quiet.

What's remarkable about this is that we've never done anything like it before on a Sunday morning. Stayed home, just for the pleasure of staying home. That's a new thing for us. We're not leaving the church, we're not down on it, we're not turning our backs on it, and we love the people of God. But man, yesterday morning in the back yard was so much more pleasant than the usual church routine.

And Next week? Who knows? We're playing it by ear.