If You’ve Left, Now is the Time to Return

There’s something Biblical about returning.

Not just to a place, but to a posture. Not to pretend nothing ever happened, but to come back to what we first loved, and find that we are wiser, even though wounded.

Many in midlife have wandered, willingly or not, from the structures and stories of our early faith. We’ve had hard losses and asked hard questions.

Some have quietly deconstructed. Others have loudly walked away and stood outside the door of the church and said, “I’m not sure you’re still for me.” Some have walked away from particular churches, and now there has been so much water passed under the bridge, so to speak, they cannot imagine coming back.

But what if midlife is the precise moment we’re meant to turn, not away from church, or even a church, but toward it again?

Not to the church of our childhood, all paper bulletins and pretend smiles. Not to a church that is comfortable and calm. And not to a church that demands production or performance.

But rather, to a real, rooted, ancient Church. To wind, fire, and the disconcerting assurance that tells the world, “These people are not drunk, at least not like YOU think…”

There is even now a re-membering, a bringing back together, of things we’ve forgotten. There is a re-membering of the church, the kind that can survive plagues, persecutions, midlife crises, and modern distractions.

The bride still carries the wisdom of the ages in her bones.

What if returning to the church is not regression, but the radical act of obedient re-integration?