Christmas Eve Candlelight Service at the Clarksville Community Church is one of the few church services I get to on a regular basis. Somehow all of the other church events seem to fade into the background, and I am not able to find or the ability to find a place for religion in my life that I would so desire. I just get too busy and I don't have time to do the necessary sole searching, or when I do through writing my words it is in a secular fashion. That is a troublesome notion as religion gives so much morality and basis for acting as a good person does.

The themes of this Christmas night service where familiar to anybody that's been to church before: serving god's will, forgiving, and a hope for a new tomorrow. These are such important messages yet not often conveyed in our often-secular world. We have a penal system and a series of economic rewards for good or bad actions, but often such principles are muddied and bureaucratic. Any real life courtroom procedure shows the weakness at state punishing, and any economic system does not benefit the most virtuous best. The only hope for truth is through god.

Religion fills an irrational need of ours, bringing charismatic leadership back into our lives. Instead of being ordered to do something in church, we are persuaded to act in a certain way. It is behavioral modification without coercion; it is a path to true freedom. We live in a world far different from what we internalize through church. The world we live in is one of slavery to bureaucratic rules, and the one we create through church is freedom through belief in acting in ways sanctioned by no power short of god as written through his ancient texts.

Church as a practical thing is a social activity, and the candlelight service was no different. It was a time for a bunch of people to get together and celebrate life and the birth of the man who helped remind us of virtues that should make up society. Candlelight Service is a beautiful activity filled with joyful song, friendly people, and deep thought on how we can make ourselves better humans. Church is different then other activities per se, except that in a social activity it also forces us to think about ourselves as individuals and how we can better American society.