Have you ever walked on stepping stones that were not spaced correctly? It makes you feel almost like you are stuttering when you step. It causes you to feel off balance and for lack of a better word a little retarded in how you walk.
For weeks, I have been thinking about this because everytime I go to walk into the office at the church I had to walk across stepping stones that felt that way. They just weren't spaced right. They were off just enough that it felt weird and made you hesitate. In fact, I eventually just stopped walking on them because it became so hard to adjust my step to them. That is...until today. Someone (thankyou!) adjusted the stepping stones. They must have been bothered by it too, however, they took some iniaitive to fix it. (better than me, again, thankyou!) So, as I began to walk into the church office, I realized that the stones were an easy fit to my step and that it felt natural and normal to walk on the stones and get to where I was going. I felt bad for not having fixed it myself, but grateful that someone had taken the time to make the steps easier to walk on.
Obviously, I have been thinking about stepping stones and the process of walking on them lately. Just like the stepping stones into the office, we often make church just as difficult. We think we are laying stones that are plain, easy and are a path to where people need to go. But the best laid plans often become cumberson and difficult to traverse. Sometimes through religion and tradition-though well intentioned, we make it HARD for people to walk out the process of being a follower of Christ. What was intended to help us walk out our faith, only makes things difficult. What was supposed to lay the groundwork to where we need to, only causes people to step off the path.
Maybe it is time to REALIGN our steps so that people can walk on the path.

Ps....this does not mean we change the message....to fit our steps. It just means when the process is too hard to walk in...we might ought to think about a different process.ALL FOR YOU