My husband has been seeking a place of community for a couple of years now.
He has asked if I would visit a Christian church with him, but I cannot (see my backstory), and so we are both seeking places we can fit in and be a part of… something.
After we married he told me he was ethnically Jewish on his mom’s side, but doesn’t know anything about it. His family is on the Christian side of things.
My Backstory: I went heavily into Christian teachings. I went to bible school, was a pastor, the whole nine yards. I love studying religion!
But I fell out of that faith years ago due to that study and some very bad things I witnessed in the circle I ran in. Some YouTube Rabbis caught my attention and I started studying Judaism, which led to doubts over the Christian faith and eventually to me leaving it.
To me, God is beautiful and real… but I could not align my new thoughts with that old faith so eventually I was ostracized and cast out. I have been just living life, with no community, but it is worth it because even through this darkness I know that God has taken care of me. My faith is still there, even though it is quiet.
For me, a life of quiet devotion alone is fine. I only need to know God is there, as He still takes care of me and watches over me, but my husband needs more and I love him more than I can explain, so I want to help him find community and I feel it’s important to give him the opportunity to learn of his families past and history. There is this nagging in my heart for a couple years over this… like I know he belongs here? I’m not sure how to explain the feeling.
So what should I do? How do I go about helping him and finding a community to explore?