I am attending a church right now that is really convenient for me being very close and having convenient service timesI have been struggling with a feeling of pressure to commit to a lot of activities but wanting a break from the pressure. Visiting my special needs brother every week and going to church 4 times a week and working a full time job and going to the fitness center three times a week feels like too much all together.
To explain about my brother, he lives at a care center and has severe autism and little speech. He used to have at least 3 visits every week when he lived near my parents but moved over an hour away to another care center and visits dropped to once a week. I relocated to the city / area where he lives so it is easier for me to visit and he does an activity bag with puzzles, children’s books, toys, a snack and drink, and music to dance to each time we visit. The whole visit time living closer to him takes about two hours including driving time to his location.
I am thinking it would be helpful to visit him every week after work in addition to my mom’s visit on the weekend, but it isn’t real easy because I have to set my alarm an hour earlier to go to work earlier so I can leave earlier so my visit can be earlier enough to not go over into his supper time. My brother has been having major behavior problems and I think my visiting him may help him. Maybe I am being overly detailed in how much I am describing this but let’s move onto the next thing.
I am currently going to a church on Sunday that is making a big deal about community by encouraging people to join life groups. If I went to one I would be going to church twice a week but I am also having thoughts about going to another church that fits better with my spiritual background but its service times are more inconvenient for my schedule. If I went to this church I might also want to go twice a week to get to the Thursday night worship service. I may just continue to go to the church I’m going to on Sunday but go to the Thursday night worship service at the other church.
So how does it turn into going to church 4 times a week? Well I also have been visiting Celebrate Recovery occasionally which is a 12 step group where you can get a sponsor and work through the steps to get free from addiction. I have only been trying it out, visiting about once a month, but I am thinking it might be good to got to to try to stay in a place of victory over an addiction. I am struggling to know if I really need to do it and if it really works. However, if I did decide to work through the program, I have been told that the real sobriety takes place when attending the step study which is a second Celebrate Recovery meeting on a different day in addition to the main meeting. I have struggled with not liking the small group on the main meeting night where you have to sit through 12 or 13 other people taking a few minutes each to share their struggles. Because of difficulty in my ability to concentrate and feeling like I don’t have the patience to wait through small group, I am uncertain if I actually want to join the program. I may be able to attend regularly but go to small group once a month if that kind of compromise is possible.
If I seriously attend Celebrate Recovery every week, it is a Christian based recovery group at a church, so that may mean going to church twice a week and feeling like I want to attend the church I go to on Sunday and also a Lifegroup which is a different church than the Celebrate Recovery is held at.
I have been feeling very overwhelmed with the pressure that comes from the idea of attending church four times a week and also visiting my brother every week. Perhaps I could limit it by attending church every Sunday, but making Celebrate recovery my midweek service and not going to the Lifegroup, or just going to church three times a week.
I have read a devotional book that explains that a lot of people are caught up in an overload of activity where people think that more programs and being busy is good, but this devotional book says taking a break from a lot of activity to just spend time with Jesus alone is good. So I am thinking of trying to limit my activity to not be so busy. but I am thinking of doing to a church that is more charismatic that is farther away. The church farther away has service on Sunday night which I don’t like as much but it has a house of prayer service on Thursday night which is similar to a church I was going to in the city an hour away that I moved out of when I moved to this city. The church that is close to me that I go to on Sunday is encouraging people to join a Lifegroup which meets mid week to have more of a community connection. For me this would mean going to a Bible study, but because of my difficulties in ability to concentrate I feel more interested in going to the house of prayer service on Thursday night. Maybe I could go to the same church on Sunday but go to the house of prayer service during the week at the farther away church.
The struggle I am having is feeling pressured with how many activities I attend which may include Celebrate Recovery once or twice a week in addition to the two church services which could take me up to 3 or 4 times a week. Celebrate Recovery is a program that I may want to go to to maintain victory over an addiction. And I am considering visiting my special needs brother every week at his care center which is a 2 hour visit.
I am also wondering if I would want to just join a house of prayer service online instead of driving out a distance at a time that doesn’t very conveniently fit my schedule. There is an app where you can stream recordings of 2 hour worship sets from a house of prayer that I visited in a distant state that has 24/7 worship and prayer. I have heard people say that just spending time on a smartphone instead of joining a group where you get to meet people in person is less real or less authentic community. However I have also read the devotional book “Jesus Calling” by Sarah Young that teaches that connecting to Jesus when you are alone and communing with the King of Kings is far more real than the world around us. I really loved the times when I got home from work, sat in my comfy chair with coffee and listening to the worship music from the house of prayer and praying and reading Jesus calling. So maybe I could just enjoy worship music at home rather than traveling out to a worship service.
These thoughts are what I am dealing with as I feel pressured with how many activities I could be involved in, which could mean church 4 times a week, visiting my brother, and also going to the fitness center regularly.
To explain about my brother, he lives at a care center and has severe autism and little speech. He used to have at least 3 visits every week when he lived near my parents but moved over an hour away to another care center and visits dropped to once a week. I relocated to the city / area where he lives so it is easier for me to visit and he does an activity bag with puzzles, children’s books, toys, a snack and drink, and music to dance to each time we visit. The whole visit time living closer to him takes about two hours including driving time to his location.
I am thinking it would be helpful to visit him every week after work in addition to my mom’s visit on the weekend, but it isn’t real easy because I have to set my alarm an hour earlier to go to work earlier so I can leave earlier so my visit can be earlier enough to not go over into his supper time. My brother has been having major behavior problems and I think my visiting him may help him. Maybe I am being overly detailed in how much I am describing this but let’s move onto the next thing.
I am currently going to a church on Sunday that is making a big deal about community by encouraging people to join life groups. If I went to one I would be going to church twice a week but I am also having thoughts about going to another church that fits better with my spiritual background but its service times are more inconvenient for my schedule. If I went to this church I might also want to go twice a week to get to the Thursday night worship service. I may just continue to go to the church I’m going to on Sunday but go to the Thursday night worship service at the other church.
So how does it turn into going to church 4 times a week? Well I also have been visiting Celebrate Recovery occasionally which is a 12 step group where you can get a sponsor and work through the steps to get free from addiction. I have only been trying it out, visiting about once a month, but I am thinking it might be good to got to to try to stay in a place of victory over an addiction. I am struggling to know if I really need to do it and if it really works. However, if I did decide to work through the program, I have been told that the real sobriety takes place when attending the step study which is a second Celebrate Recovery meeting on a different day in addition to the main meeting. I have struggled with not liking the small group on the main meeting night where you have to sit through 12 or 13 other people taking a few minutes each to share their struggles. Because of difficulty in my ability to concentrate and feeling like I don’t have the patience to wait through small group, I am uncertain if I actually want to join the program. I may be able to attend regularly but go to small group once a month if that kind of compromise is possible.
If I seriously attend Celebrate Recovery every week, it is a Christian based recovery group at a church, so that may mean going to church twice a week and feeling like I want to attend the church I go to on Sunday and also a Lifegroup which is a different church than the Celebrate Recovery is held at.
I have been feeling very overwhelmed with the pressure that comes from the idea of attending church four times a week and also visiting my brother every week. Perhaps I could limit it by attending church every Sunday, but making Celebrate recovery my midweek service and not going to the Lifegroup, or just going to church three times a week.
I have read a devotional book that explains that a lot of people are caught up in an overload of activity where people think that more programs and being busy is good, but this devotional book says taking a break from a lot of activity to just spend time with Jesus alone is good. So I am thinking of trying to limit my activity to not be so busy. but I am thinking of doing to a church that is more charismatic that is farther away. The church farther away has service on Sunday night which I don’t like as much but it has a house of prayer service on Thursday night which is similar to a church I was going to in the city an hour away that I moved out of when I moved to this city. The church that is close to me that I go to on Sunday is encouraging people to join a Lifegroup which meets mid week to have more of a community connection. For me this would mean going to a Bible study, but because of my difficulties in ability to concentrate I feel more interested in going to the house of prayer service on Thursday night. Maybe I could go to the same church on Sunday but go to the house of prayer service during the week at the farther away church.
The struggle I am having is feeling pressured with how many activities I attend which may include Celebrate Recovery once or twice a week in addition to the two church services which could take me up to 3 or 4 times a week. Celebrate Recovery is a program that I may want to go to to maintain victory over an addiction. And I am considering visiting my special needs brother every week at his care center which is a 2 hour visit.
I am also wondering if I would want to just join a house of prayer service online instead of driving out a distance at a time that doesn’t very conveniently fit my schedule. There is an app where you can stream recordings of 2 hour worship sets from a house of prayer that I visited in a distant state that has 24/7 worship and prayer. I have heard people say that just spending time on a smartphone instead of joining a group where you get to meet people in person is less real or less authentic community. However I have also read the devotional book “Jesus Calling” by Sarah Young that teaches that connecting to Jesus when you are alone and communing with the King of Kings is far more real than the world around us. I really loved the times when I got home from work, sat in my comfy chair with coffee and listening to the worship music from the house of prayer and praying and reading Jesus calling. So maybe I could just enjoy worship music at home rather than traveling out to a worship service.
These thoughts are what I am dealing with as I feel pressured with how many activities I could be involved in, which could mean church 4 times a week, visiting my brother, and also going to the fitness center regularly.
