I can see an interesting development in my life as I moved from the view that I had no choice about going to church to the feeling that I needed to go to church.
At the beginning of this period, I was in high school, and my parents insisted that I continue going to Sunday School. Two years after college, when I was working as a Christian Science practitioner, I arrived at the church steps for each Wednesday evening testimony meeting and each Sunday service feeling that I was running on fumes and in great need of refueling. I lived from Wednesday to Sunday to Wednesday again.
There is no question that at this later time I loved Jesus' beatitude "Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness: for they shall be filled." Matt. 5:6. I needed the spiritual refreshment and encouragement that church provided. The spiritual companionship of church was equally important. The prophet Ezekiel wrote of waters that came from under the threshold of the temple and became a river that healed and restored everything it touched. See Ezek., chap. 47. The river of Truth and Love that I found flowing every Wednesday and Sunday at church certainly did that for me. And I washed and drank and swam in it all I could.
