This bugs me somewhat, but where I get really impatient is with people of any age who hop from one church to another, never satisfied, always seeking a church that “meets my needs.” For many Americans, the most important task of church is to meet their “needs.”

This idea is profoundly wrong. There are legitimate reasons to leave a church. However, Americans pride ourselves on being “rugged individualists.” It’s almost like we are a nation of Lone Rangers. But God didn’t create us to be some sort of independent unit, floating in aloneness through space. He created us needing each other. There are no Lone Rangers in the kingdom of God.

This morning, I saw a blurb in a magazine, about a 2004 study showing that one in four Americans had no close friends, nobody in whom they could confide on important matters.

I’m surprised. I am surprised that it’s not far worse than one in four. We live in a highly fragmented society, one that encourages shallowness, not depth, and I would have thought many more of us would live lives of aloneness, of “solitary desperation.”

Sadly, I have to include myself in that number of essentially friendless people. I have only a few friends at any level, and almost no really close ones. I can think of only one, and he lives hundreds of miles away. That makes it hard to get together for lunch. And certainly, I have to include myself among those whose “needs” are not met at my church. Of course, that assumes I have any idea what my real needs are.

So, what should I do about all that? What do I do about the twin problems of frustration and loneliness? Leave my church? Find a more “compatible” church? That's the "American way." Clearly, I am not in a place that seems in my best interest, right? Wrong.

I have noticed something unpleasant about the world, something I dislike: The way this world works is that “me” and “my needs” don't matter in any real scheme of things. I want to be important, to matter. But the world doesn’t care about me. Life is not about me. Even my life.

That sounds cold, and it is. I don’t like it. But it’s the truth. So what do I do?

There is only one place where I matter, one person who genuinely understands and cares about my needs. I matter to God, and my needs -- my real needs -- are met when I live in his presence.

So I remain in my church, staying put for one reason: I think it’s where God wants me. And that's the only thing that should matter. It has nothing to do with anything like my “needs.” I don’t even know what my needs are. That sometimes makes others around me a little crazy, but that’s the way it is. I am there in obedience to God’s voice, as well as I can understand it.

I am not there for myself but to worship and serve God among his people, and to share with others whatever gifts God has given me.

So does our church have problems? Sure does. And am I frustrated about them? Don’t even get me started on that! But am I there for my own happiness? Does it matter that I am frustrated? No and yes.

My frustration can be a good thing, as long as I maintain perspective: I am not there for me. I am there because God put me there to be a channel of his grace and truth. I am there to “be Jesus” to some others, to know God and to teach others to know him, too.

As I am obedient and faithful to the voice of God in whatever situation He puts me, my “needs” will certainly and abundantly be met. I will be blessed, I will grow in my relationship with him, and I will have a fruitful life.

But let’s face it, I will still be frustrated. And that’s good: People who are never frustrated are likely to be satisfied with the status quo, and never experience that inner burning for more of God working in and through us for our benefit and his glory.

And being satisfied with only a little of God is never a good thing.

Amen.