My God-Story is what by some accounts may seem very simple. I was raised catholic, and attended catholic school through 8th grade. During high school, I began to question what the meaning behind all the rules and requirements were- as any typical adolescent would do. Sing it louder to show you're prouder was the only thing I learned in 8 years of catholic school. Repeat after everone else, dress sharp, and pick up hot ham and rolls on the way home to watch the football games on Sundays. The only problem I had was that the more I started to ask about 'church', the more I received the same answers that were somewhere between, 'because God said so' and 'that's just the way it is'. Needless to say, this didn't sit well with me. Over the next several years I was driven away from the very concept of religion in general. I had taken a World Religions class in college several years later, and approached it with a closed mind and a highly skeptical approach to understaning. I was much more focused on why one version of the teachings referenced 5,000 troops, and the other referenced 10,000 for the same historical incident. How there could be so many discrepencies about the same events taking place depending on the version you happen to buy. Why I needed to listen to someone who paid to go to school and wear a traditional outfit, doing the same traditional thing every Sunday had any right to tell me what the readings should mean to me. Here's where the simplicity comes in. After college, I had got married...started a family and hadn't thought about religion, church, or anything along those lines for several more years. Then one day, as I was confronted with a rock bottom relationship challenge- my God story happened. With everything going on, one of the very first things that came to mind was that I needed to go to church. I didn't even know what that meant. It had legitimately been at least 8 years since I had sat through a service that I can recall. I had been in a church for a baptism, and a wedding...but never on my own accord for a service since before college. But after that moment, my wife and I looked for churches in the area online and decided to try out Lincoln Heights. The next Sunday- I set foot in Lincoln Heights and sat down in a pew. I haven't missed a service since. I can't say I heard God speak to me. I can't say I saw him in some grand vision. I can't even say that I took a knee and prayed to Him, and asked for his guidance. But what I can say, is that it was the first thought I have had in my head regarding God, religion, church, etc for over 20 years that I didn't need to question, I didn't need to debate, and I didn't need further clarification on. I knew I needed to understand more about relationships, starting with Him. I'm not sure I have the words to explain the emotions and the enlightenment I have experienced in the past several weeks- but the journey just started.

-Anonymous