This is true religion

I remember when we'd wake up, shivering and tired, so tired--all I wanted was a few more hours, and maybe I'd get about forty minutes if I skipped my shower--throwing on someone else's hoodie, flip flops, and whatever cut off jean shorts were semi-clean. Then to the kitchen for a cup of hot cocoa; over the years changing from being hidden out back to being made from scratch to Marni's extra black coffee in the end days. And being downstairs you could already hear the creaking of the floor above from all the staff. Then upstairs, onto a couch or a spot on the floor, and you'd start your morning with singing.

But this wasn't any singing, this is the best there ever was. In no way shape or form can I sing on tune. In fact I'm really self-conscious about it. But all of us--a strange group of teens and young adults, in tshirts and mostly without makeup--would just absolutely become part of a choir I've never experienced either before or afterwards. There was an energy, a power behind the hymns, and we all knew it. No matter how tired we all were, we sang. And the good voices carried the tunes enough that I could sing to the point that it wasn't about singing anymore, but really about becoming the hymns, the words. The writing in the old hymns is beautiful and when we lose that power behind them we lose so much poetry, so much beauty. Religion was not created to be a captivating force, but rather it was created for the beauty of God. For the poetry of God. For the love of God. For the knowledge and power of God. When I think about religion, I think about those days, dusty dirty tired beyond belief--and happy. I genuinely believe that's what He created it to be like. I believe that when we get to heaven, it will be much simpler than we think. It will be beauty. It will be like those songs we sang so long ago, the smell of breakfast floating through the floorboards. The feeling of support you'd get from looking around the room, just knowing that everyone else is on your side, on your team. Knowing too that everyone else was willing to work just as hard as you were so that the mission could be accomplished, could be met.

This is true religion: to help the widows and the orphans. To help. A linking verb. What are we linking? Religion and help? Religion and the poor? To understand what it is to have resources--because different challenges are met and are accomplished. The kitchen is clean. The dishes are done. No matter how tired I am, I will still wash the dishes, because I know that if the dishes are clean then others can be out doing their part. It's so small, so simple. I want that time back. I want that feeling back. I have been searching for that all of my adult life. It's so hard to find the simplicity of that place. It's so hard to clearly define what all it did in my life. It's so hard to convince other people that that's the only way to work together. How do you keep love alive