My family did attend church sometimes, but not consistently. We went to a mainline denominational church, but I did not understand why we participated in all the church traditions. We did them because we were supposed to, but it seemed rather empty to me-just a bunch of rituals and rules about what we were supposed to do.
In high school, I started to wonder if there was more to faith than what I had experienced so far. I decided I would search for answers, and I started reading the Bible on my own to see what I thought about what it said.
Over time, I would find truth in the Bible which would resonate with me. One of the verses in the Bible that explained my experience was Matthew 6:7 which says;
“Do not repeat prayers mindlessly as the Gentiles do…”
Mindless repetition-THAT was my experience so far, doing all these repeated traditions without understanding, and here was Jesus Christ saying: DO NOT DO IT THIS WAY. So I started to realize that my limited experience so far was not what being a Christian was supposed to be.
In fact, I found out that I was not really a Christian, or even a Catholic (my family went to the Catholic church when I was growing up). A true Christian or Catholic believes the tenants of the church, which SHOULD all come from and be supported by the Bible because the scripture is adequate to define what Christianity is and how it should work. If we do not hold to that, then we have a man-made religion.
So I found that even though I had attended church on some type of nominal basis, I did not believe what was said or practiced there. There was a great assumption because I was in the building, or part of the tradition. But as a child, I did what I was supposed to do, and if left me with the questions about what was true.
One of the things I was missing was an understanding that came from the Bible so that I could decide for myself if I thought the ideas and concepts there should have my trust and faith. Someone else believing them was not enough for me.