Around this time last year, my now fiancé swung the offer to attend her church, and I’ve never looked back.

Not only did this give me an opportunity to re-encounter my spiritual side that had plummeted since attending a Lutheran high school back in 2000-2005, but gave me the motivation to read the Bible, which I’ve wanted to do for years.

Attending a church has always been a daunting thing for me, which one do I go to? which one is right? what will the experience be like? will everyone be overly pushy? I’ve always just opted out due to many of these questions that rattled around in my head, but deep down I knew I had to go at some point.

So how was my experience when I first went to church?

Well the church I attended, and I still do now is iSEE Church in Brisbane, they have three locations and I regularly attend all of them depending on where I am. The experience was nothing like what I thought it would be, it was nothing like what I had in my head (you know, very slow music played on an organ, sitting for an hour falling asleep while some old geezer preached a message), it was full of energy, music that you could really get into, and some of the take away messages really speak to you at a personal level.

Now I can’t lie and say it wasn’t daunting at first, it was very much a daunting experience after the first few times I attended. It was a new experience, it took time to adjust, but every time I went it was exciting, met new people (and meeting new people is occasionally a terrifying experience to me), gained new insights and discovered new things in my life that I was passionate about. I think back now where my Sunday mornings would involve sleeping into 11 am, feeling slightly horrible whether or not I’d been out the night before (and most of the time I had) and I seriously would not look back. Now I endeavour to attend church every Sunday morning for the rest of my life.

So how does this lead to reading the bible?

Yes, this post went a bit off topic, but also quite relevant. Reading the Bible in church is something you do, or can do, whether it be hard-copy or on your phone, there is reading to be done every Sunday and I endeavour to do it (I generally I take notes too).

Reading the bible to me has also become a daily morning routine in my life. This often varies some mornings from 5-30 minutes, it really depends on a few factors including what I’ve scheduled that morning, or if I’ve slept in (anything past 6 is generally a sleep in). At first, I did find it difficult to start, where do you begin? what does it all mean? this is kind of where the church helps, but I also found various study guides you can use to guide you through the bible.

It’s quite amazing what you can find when you read the bible, there are multitudes of real-life events and messages that can be taken away and integrated into your day to help deal with stress and live a more peaceful, meaningful life. I’ve been reading the bible almost every day for the past 8-10 months and I believe it’s changed my life for the better.

So whats the take away from this post?

• If you’re looking or have ever been thinking about attending a church, just do it, you won’t look back.
• Reading the Bible as little as 5 minutes a day is an invaluable experience.
• Going to church and knowing more about God can really help to understand how to live a better, more meaningful life.

Read more about my 101things journey.