Stipulations of Religion

Sometimes it's the broken church,
the sad church,
the church with the smashed and missing
stained glass windows -

that is the better church,
the truer church,
the more godly church
for which your and my god(s) are meant
to be honored in -

sometimes it's the church that has broken pews,
has an attendance of barely three,
sometimes it's the church that has a
belfry barely held up by worn-weathered-wood -

it's not always the biggest church,
the shiniest church,
the church with a thousand parishioners,
the perfect church can be a clearing in the woods,
a bus-stop confessional,
under the over-pass bridge where the
young and broken and homeless
stay away from all of the pain that they feel each new day -

Don't always look for your god(s) in the shiny church,
don't always look for your spirituality in a
room with everyone that looks and prays like you,
don't always look for salvation from a faith built in a house of gold.

You'll find your god(s), your spirituality,
your salvation from within first,
if not there,
 then in the faces of those you won't dare look at.

Don't pray in a marble cathedral,
if you're afraid of praying in a
fallen wooden church first.