Where everyday faith meets everyday life

I am not sure who began the rumor that being a "church person" means that life is always happy and without problems.  Maybe it's because people who consider themselves Christians use the word "blessed" so many times.  And I get it...to the un-churched, de-churched, or quasi-churched this communicates an idea that things are all good, just perfect, or everything is fine.  But here's the reality - at least for the people who call themselves Clarity Church:

We confess that we are just regular people pursuing a way of living that is increasingly learning to submit all of life to Jesus as Lord (he is in control and he calls the shots) and Savior (we trust him to reconcile our relationship to God, and to daily transform us to become more like him and less like the "old self")

So what does that mean?  Well it means that people we call part of the Clarity family experience heartache and heartbreak.  It means that we get diagnosed an ailment that renders us unable to continue volunteering with podcast editing.  It means that we lose our jobs and we lose loved ones.  It means that we experience anxiety and become control freaks.  

It means that we are everyday people trying to engage everyday life with an everyday kind of faith.

At the end of the day we take hope in what people of faith in Christ had taken hope in for nearly 2 millennia.  The Apostle Paul said it best when he said:

21 I have discovered this principle of life—that when I want to do what is right, I inevitably do what is wrong. 22 I love God’s law with all my heart. 23 But there is another power within me that is at war with my mind. This power makes me a slave to the sin that is still within me.24 Oh, what a miserable person I am! Who will free me from this life that is dominated by sin and death? 25 Thank God! The answer is in Jesus Christ our Lord.  (Romans 7:21-25)

7 We now have this light shining in our hearts, but we ourselves are like fragile clay jars containing this great treasure. This makes it clear that our great power is from God, not from ourselves. 8 We are pressed on every side by troubles, but we are not crushed. We are perplexed, but not driven to despair. 9 We are hunted down, but never abandoned by God. We get knocked down, but we are not destroyed. - 2 Corinthians 4:7-9