From cynicism, to 'pew-warming,' to loving back

By Judith Hardy Olson

I'm one of those who left church to feed their spirituality in private. But something drew me back.

Although at the time I wouldn't have recognized it, I think I felt innately that something was missing in my life. The Sunday morning came when, instead of being glad I didn't have to smell mothballs (a woman who usually sat near me in church always smelled of mothballs), or possibly hear a mispronounced word in the sermon (I was most critical at that point), I felt drawn to go to Christian Science services by what I'd call an inner yearning. To my surprise, I got out of bed, asked my husband to accompany me, bundled up the baby, and we went to church.

I have no idea whether any words were mispronounced that morning, and I didn't notice if anyone smelled like mothballs. I was no longer thinking that way. All I knew was that the same connectedness with God, which I'd been nurturing in private, I was now feeling with all the people there at church. And they were all kinds of people—though none like me, a young mother with a baby. Still, I felt a special bond with all of them.

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