IT HAD gotten to the point where I didn't even want to go to church. Faced with the challenge of a huge and nearly empty church building, our membership had grown increasingly contentious. We couldn't seem to agree about anything when it came to attracting more visitors to our services. Business meetings were unpleasant, and the friction had begun to spill over into church services as well. Sometimes, people got so upset that they stopped coming to church for weeks at a time. And that depleted attendance even more.
The climax came after an especially divisive membership meeting, when three members of the church's board of directors resigned their church membership. Now we had even fewer members! And rather than feeling uplifted by church, I just came away from it feeling depressed.
Around this time, I tore a ligament in my leg. My knee became so swollen and inflamed that I wasn't able to move. I found myself totally incapacitated, unable to get out of bed. I turned to prayer, as I usually do when something in my life needs healing, becoming more fully aware my oneness with God, with infinite Truth and Love.
