Last Saturday, my bro had asked me if I wanted to go to church with him in the morning. Normally, when I’m up in LA, I try to make it back down for Exodus on Sunday morning. When he invited me I was a bit hesitant for selfish reasons and my insecurities. First off, it was early, which means we would have to leave at 8:30am, secondly, it was unfamiliar.  So I kind of struggled in what to do because I had been praying for a long time for my brother to go back to church and he finally did so the right thing for me to do would be to support him.  But I was kind of feeling insecure.  And he also told me that they had Bible study right after church too and that was even more uncomfortable – going to a Bible study where you don’t know people – sharing in groups…remember, I don’t like that, it’s uncomfortable.

Originally I had decided that I would just go to church and then drive back to SD right after the service and skip the Bible study but then after some thought, I figured I would just go.  It was a Baptist church.  The service was a bit traditional, something I hadn’t experienced in a long time, since junior high.  There were a lot of hymns, some scripture readings with responses, some talking, communion, and all that before we even got to the message.  The message was short.  The service was interesting.  Definitely not something I was familiar with.  After service, there is about a 30 minute break period where people just hang out and drink coffee and eat snacks.  It was so crowded there.  Everyone seemed so young.  I mostly just stayed with my brother and one friend that he knew.

Then we went to Bible study which was about winners and losers of the Bible and it mainly focused on King Solomon.  It was kind of a lecture style study which was nice and made me feel more comfortable.  I could just listen and not be picked on or have to sit in a small circle with people and share things.  It was actually pretty nice and interesting.  We compared Kings and Chronicles a lot and went through a lot of passages which was kind of nice because I actually haven’t been in a study for a while.

The best part of the day which was a total blessing was that I went to lunch with my brother and just my brother.  For many years (yes, years), I have always wanted to do this.  I wanted to just hang out with my brother and just talk about life and whatever.  My brother and I have been close but not super duper close where we just talk and that is something I had been longing for for a very long time.  I guess it was always hard because of the age difference but I always knew that it would get better as we got older.  I really love my brother so it was such a blessing.  I was so happy that these words can’t really describe it.  We had lunch and talked about jobs, the family, church, random things.  It was so nice!  I loved it.  I just pray that we will continue to grow closer to each other.  :)