Basketball and Church

The last three weekends have been nirvana for college basketball junkies like myself. Some games down to the wire, a Cinderella story in George Mason, all the #1 seeds being knocked out prior to the Final Four...lots of excitement as usually is the case with the tournament. And even though my perennial favorites, 'Bama and Duke, were eliminated early on, I'm still looking forward to tonight's final game.

This is a tough game to call. Florida and UCLA both looked like they were giving workshops on Saturday. I'm going to follow my heart (not always a wise decision, I'll admit) and give the edge to Florida. I always like when a team wins its first championship (except when it's over Duke), and UCLA already has 11 of them under their belt.

My prediction for the final score is Florida 72, UCLA 68. Good thing I'm not a betting woman, since my reasons for picking a team are not always logical. But hey, since when are women logical? :)

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I love the congregation where I attend church, but sometimes it's just too darn big. Right now we're somewhere around 1,200+ members on the roll, and I'd say we average over 1,000 in attendance each Sunday. We've had tremendous growth over the past 10 years, and it's all God's doing.

But...there are a lot of complications that come with having such a large congregation. The main one is that it's very difficult to get to know people, because there are so many people to meet. It's easy to have surface-y relationships, but going deeper is a challenge at times.

We have small groups (life groups) that meet on Sunday nights in each other's homes. This is a great way to have a "small" church within a huge church. I'm really enjoying the group I'm in this year.

Still, there are times when I long to be in a smaller church--in this case, smaller could mean 500 people, which is still considered a large church by many standards. I was talking this over with a couple of friends the other night, and one of them commented on the fact that sometimes you feel more needed in a smaller church, or you feel like you can do more for God there.

I think God can use me whether I'm in a church of 100 people or 1,000 people. But sometimes I do wonder if I'm needed elsewhere. And sometimes I don't want to be needed--I want to just sit back and relax and soak everything in and let someone else do the work.

I've thought a lot about mission work lately. I'm not sure if God's leading my heart in that direction for a short-term mission trip, or if I'm meant to move to Africa or Asia or South America someday for a long-term commitment to mission work.

No matter where I end up, the point is that God has put me here, at this church, for now, for a reason. I'm trying to remember that, especially when I start longing to feel needed. He can use me right here, right now, if I just let Him.