A thrill of hope: Better parking spot

Before I started attending St. Paul, I hadn’t been a church-goer since my teens. To put that in perspective, I’m soon going to be 65.

For all those years before St. Paul, I used to tell myself that it was OK that I didn’t go to church, that it was enough to just believe. To a point, that might even be true. But St. Paul showed me why church is important in strengthening and supporting one’s faith in God. Thanks to St Paul, I’ve learned to keep God and Jesus and The Holy Spirit closer to the front of my heart, as opposed to where they were before, which was parked in the middle of my heart somewhere.

The real life application of this change is that the word God often springs quicker from this better parking spot, and out of my mouth at unexpected moments in what I hope are meaningful ways. It’s hard to think of all the times it’s happened, but it’s usually in the context of planting a positive thought in someone who may need one.

May God bless everyone this Christmas!

Tom Hebbeln is a musician who lives in Davenport.