A friend posed a question to Facebook yesterday asking, “Why are you really going to church?” I replied as honest as I knew how because I can remember, just a few years ago, when I was going to church but church wasn’t in me. I was going through the motions of looking religious because it was what I was used too but I was leaving worship with everything but religion. I would get up on Sunday and dress the part but I wasn’t living it. I’d sing in the choir and serve in positions but there was nothing genuine about my praise. Now though, my thoughts and actions have changed. It didn’t happen overnight and neither am I perfect but I had to change. Why? Because I wasn’t being true to me, let’s not even talk about what I was doing to God. But then one day, I woke up tired of suffering and playing. Now, today, when I go to church; I treat it as my routine checkup in God’s Garage. See, I have come to realize that going to worship is like going to a mechanic’s shop and unlike getting your oil changed every 3000 miles, it’s getting your oil renewed every 8640 minutes. Yea, going to worship is to make sure you have the right amount of ‘living water’ so you don’t overheat. Going to worship is checking to make sure all of your parts are working properly so you don’t give out, on your way. And going to worship, allows you to fellowship with others who may not be in pristine condition like you are. You know how you sit in the dealership’s waiting area? Worship is God’s Garage waiting area. While you’re there, you can chat with others who are there.
When you do, you may find somebody who is at their wit’s end and you can offer hope. You may connect with somebody who is fearful of the work that is needed to get them right but you can offer hope because you know the mechanic personally and you can testify of His work ethic. You may even talk to somebody who is thinking about changing their mechanic but you can offer hope because you’ve been where they are and walked in their shoes. You can offer hope because you’ve been utilizing this mechanic’s shop for a while and His work speaks for itself. Why do I go to church? To make sure my oil isn’t low and if it is, to get it topped off. Why do I go to church? To make sure everything is at the level it should be in order to work effectively. Why do I go to church? To give hope to somebody who may be struggling with paying what it cost to the mechanic. This is why God’s Garage poster of ‘Please Come Again’ says, “And so, dear brothers and sisters, we can boldly enter heaven’s Most Holy Place because of the blood of Jesus. By his death Jesus opened a new and life-giving way through the curtain into the Most Holy Place. And since we have a great High Priest who rules over God’s house, let us go right into the presence of God with sincere hearts fully trusting him. For our guilty consciences have been sprinkled with Christ’s blood to make us clean, and our bodies have been washed with pure water. Let us hold tightly without wavering to the hope we affirm, for God can be trusted to keep his promise. Let us think of ways to motivate one another to acts of love and good works. And let us not neglect our meeting together, as some people do, but encourage one another, especially now that the day of his return is drawing near (Hebrews 10:19-25).”
Lakisha, the Author 
Amen