Religion

This has been on my mind ALL week so I really feel like I should share....
I was FINALLY able to go to church on Sunday after way to long. (my work schedule has been preventing my going for a few weeks) I always feel guilty about not being able to go. I have never been able to put into words how I feel about this topic until this past Sunday when our senior pastor was preaching.
He was talking about world travels and meeting new people, and he was talking about going to church and the way we live our lives when all of the sudden he says..."The worst thing we can do is become RELIGIOUS". I thought to myself...did I really just hear that right? Well, I did. He went on to explain that if we are ONLY spending time with other Christians, if we are ONLY listening to Christian music, if we are ONLY reading Christian books, if we ONLY see Christian movies, if we are ONLY participating in church activities that we are indeed missing Gods point and we are isolating ourselves. I do feel like my beleif in God defines who I am, however, that being said, that may not be the FIRST thing someone learns about me. The FIRST things that I want someone to learn about me is that I am kind, caring, nonjudgemental, compassionate, trustworthy, loving...and then I want them to further explore why that might be. Then they will find out that I live this way because I feel that that is what I feel I am called to do. On occassions where someone has found out that I am a Christian or that my husband is a Youth Minister before getting to know me, I feel that it actually keeps them from being who they REALLY are. They either avoid me altogether or act differently around me. That is not what being a Christian is about. It is about seeing Gods work in the world. If I ONLY surrounded myself with people who are "like me" then I would have missed out on a lifetime of blessings. God works through all of us whether we are Christian, LDS, Buddist, Athiest, etc... and I truly feel that it is important to just be accepting of people and to try to see what it is that God is trying to teach us from the people that come into our lives.