C is for Christian

 My A to Z Challenge Theme this year is the ABC's of me.  Each day in the month of April with the exception of Sundays I will be posting about one aspect of my life that begins with the letter of the day.  Today's letter is C so let's get right to it shall we?

A was for Amateur Parodist

B was for Blogger

C is for Christian

Note: Since these posts are about aspects of me it stands to reason that I have written about these aspects before.  I will be using some of those writings directly and indirectly in the challenge.  Last week I came across a paper I wrote in college back in the early 90's.  I have decided to use it in it's entirety including a note to my professor and my  professor's comments as today's submission.  

Tama - I wrote this for another class in the Fall.  I will submit fresh Thursday work as well.  I include this because I am interested to see if you can respond to this.  If you can I hope to expand on it as my third form.

Growing out of Old Clothes

          Once when I was growing up I came up with the notion that I was adopted.  I didn't know why I felt this way because I look exactly like my Dad.  I was driving everyone crazy until my Dad came up with irrefutable evidence that I was his. He said, "David, when you adopt you get a choice in who you get."

     It is true that you can not choose your children.  Children have no more choice in who they will get as parents. Parents influence their children heavily in their early years.  Children are not even aware of their influence.  They accept what their parents say and do as right without questioning it.

One such area that this occurred in my family was religion.  I was born and raised in a Catholic family. We went oft church every Sunday and I went to Parochial school for nine years. I regularly received the sacraments of Communion and Confession and was confirmed in the seventh grade.

I never minded being Catholic growing up.  We got holidays off that the public kids didn't.  In my early years we learned a lot about the Bible.  I enjoyed that. At home we never really looked at it, only at school. Still and all, I thought Catholicism was cool and even thought about the priesthood.

As I grew older I became less satisfied with Catholicism.  In the eight grade our priest came in to clear up the Bible for us.  He told us that many of the stories we had been learning to be true were just allegory.  This really bothered me.  Was belief something just for children? If it was, I was not ready to outgrow it.

Disillusion grew as I entered high school.  While religion was a staple in our family, it had no everyday significance. At dinner Dad would lead us in the same memorized prayer we'd been saying for years.  It was sometimes difficult for Dad to get control of 5 rowdy children and one talkative wife so he could lead us,  On one of these hectic occasions I remember him bellowing, "God Damn it! We are going to pray!" It is a funny and sad memory for me because it indicates the dichotomy of religion and practice in our home.  

In junior high and high school I was always growing. I was constantly growing out of old clothes and in need of new ones.  My Mom and I would go to the store and she would ask me what I wanted and proceed to buy what she wanted.  I knew that someday I would be able to choose my own clothes.

As I grew up my family's Catholicism seemed not to fit.  I needed a God who was stable. One that was not going to change. One that was the same on Sunday as He was at the supper table.  I spent my high school years looking for something that would fit.  

I made a discovery two days after Christmas my Senior year.  I found something that fit.  I discovered a Jesus that wasn't distant. A Jesus that was the same yesterday, today, and forever.  A Jesus who was interested in all areas of my life.  I never met that Jesus in the church I grew up in, and I gradually stopped attending there.  I discovered Him in the Bible and in the lives of those who followed Him.  I decided that day I would follow Him.

Often when I tell friends I once was Catholic, they ask what I am now,  Some days I just respond by whatever denominational dog tag I happen to be answering by. On my good days, I answer by saying what I became that day in late December 1982: A follower of Jesus. Being a follower of Jesus is not something I was born into.  It was clothing that I chose to put on, and I have never outgrown it.

Professor's comment: Yes - This is much more accessible.  I find this by far & away the least alienating.  In fact, it's engaging. All people, no matter what their faith, are fascinated by the spiritual quest of others. It's such a private matter such a crucial matter, we care.  And when you simply share, you've an audience.

 Well that's all of me to C today.  For more of the A to Z challenge click here.  

Coming Up: Son of a David.

 

Facing The Unknown - Weekly Writers Workshop

 

This weeks prompts for Weekly Writers Workshop hosted by the inimitable (I should know, I try to imitit him all the time, and I am not able) John Holton on his blog, The Sound of One Hand Typing, are:  write a post on the word medications,  write a post in exactly 12 sentences, write about what would induce you to give up life as you know it and face the unknown, tell us the story of your personal experience with rejection, write about a bad habit you'd like to eliminate from your life, and write about a time you had to let go of someone you cared for.  I'm sure you have deciphered by the enormity of the first sentence, and the title of this post which prompts I have chosen.  

There have been at least 5 times in my adult life that I have given up life as I knew it and faced the unknown: moving across the state at the age of 22 to attend university,  moving across the world to serve 2 years as a Southern Baptist missionary in Far East Russia in 1992 a few months after the country had  opened it's doors to Western missionaries, moving across the U.S. to attend seminary, moving across the country again back to my native Illinois to court the woman who would become my wife, and finally moving against the grain by staying at home for 6 years and homeschooling my children. In each of these cases I gave up life as I knew it and faced the unknown; in the first 4 I also had to let people go that I cared for (the 6th prompt).  

What motivated me those 5 times varied by degree but they all had to do with a path I have tried to follow since becoming a follower of Jesus more than 40 years ago and that path has been putting the needs of others before my own.  I am not perfect, so I haven't  been perfectly motivated and I sure haven't perfectly followed this path but the path has certainly led many times to leaving life as I then knew it. 

My first three travels were all based on what I thought would be the life of a missionary.  When I left South Carolina where I had attended seminary for a year to pursue marriage with Amy, I had already become uncertain of a career as a missionary, but one of the myriad reasons I had fallen in love with her was because I had seen in our 7 years of friendship that she was also on the path to putting others needs before her own.  So I envisioned that we would attempt to meet those needs together, which we have for 26 years and continue to do so however imperfectly. 

The needs of my wife and children motivated me as a home educator, they also prepared me for my current job as a substitute teacher. With all our children out of high school, there may come a day when Amy and I, as a couple give up life as we know it and face the unknown. I am certain  that the same motivations that directed in the past would lead us into any new unknown. 

I know would like to lead you back to the known, which is a variety pack of other submissions that can be found in the comments section of  this weeks edition of the Weekly Writer's Workshop. 

Spiritual Thursday: Delivering the message of delivery.

It is time once again for Spiritual Thursday and I am hosting today.  Today I have some ruminations on the church.  But before I ruminate away, I have some questions you might want to reflect on and answer.  Of course these are just ideas and you are free to write about anything you  like.  

First, is there a physical place that has deep spiritual meaning to you?  Secondly, are there people  who have invested in, walked alongside, or that you have walked along side of in your journey?  How have they encouraged you on the way? Has your spiritual journey given your life purpose?  Does your journey have a way?  In other words, what has been your path on that journey?   In my mind the answers to those questions help constitute what church is to so many of us. 

*************************************************************************************************************

I am going to Greece in less than a week and I am super excited!!! We will be spending time in Athens and Corinth, but mostly be on the islands of Sifnos and Paros.  The island of Sifnos boasts 360 churches, the most if any island in the Cyclades.  Including this one which we hope to travel to.  

 https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Church_of_Epta_Martyres_,Kastro_on_Sifnos,_153398.jpg#/media/File:Church_of_Epta_Martyres_,Kastro_on_Sifnos,_153398.jpg

While preparing for our trip we have found many churches that we can visit as tourists but have had more difficulty finding churches we can attend as practitioners.  This is what gave me my idea for today's post.

Oftentimes when we think of a church, we think of a structure.  Just in the same way when we think of the post office, we think of a building or perhaps a mail box.  Perhaps we might think of a person when we think of the church, perhaps a  priest, pastor or parishioner. Thinking of the post office, we might picture  our mail deliverer.  Sometimes when we think about the church, we might focus on the negative, the scandals, the abuse, the hypocrisy.  Again, at the post office, we might think about lost mail or someone going, well, postal.

I would say that the church and the post office are really about one thing, the same thing, and that thing is delivery.

There are 2 meanings of the word deliver and they work in concert with each other.  First, you deliver a message, second you deliver something from one place to another.  In the post office context, the message that gets delivered is separate than the place it was delivered from and where it's going. So if I send a letter from where I live in Illinois to where my sister lives in Virginia,   the route that the message is taking does not change the meaning of the message.

But the church is also delivering a message and being delivered at the same moment.  I will give an Old Testament and New Testament example, but there are countless  examples that don't derive from the scriptures.  In the Old Testament the Hebrews are literally being delivered from bondage in Egypt and being delivered to the promised land. One example from the New Testament is I Peter 2:9,

But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light.

In this example, the message that is being delivered is that people are being delivered from darkness into light.

I guess what I'm saying is that when I think of the church, I think of the message being delivered and the journey from where you've been to where you are now, to where you are headed.  The two types of delivery message and journey are intertwined together.  

For me my spiritual journey is centered around Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ has delivered me from slavery and is leading me to the promised land and is preparing a place for me there.  It is Jesus who has called me out of darkness into his marvelous light.  Before Jesus church was just a place and a practice.  Now the church is His body here on earth.  He is the message that we deliver and the Messiah who has is delivering us.  

Poetry Friday: The Problem of Good.

 It's Thursday night so we all know that mean's it's time for Poetry Friday.  This week's festival of free verse, carnival of couplets, and symposium of sonnets is being held at Bookseed Studio.

I went through about 1.3 million drafts or so of this poem before I got this far. I was driving my family crazy with all the revisions.  Here is what I came up with ...

The Problem of Good.

I tried feeling good

       But ...

Feeling good fades.

I tried being good

       But ...

Being good is impossible

I tried doing good

Doing good is filling a leaky bucket

One exhausting drop at a time

Then I remembered

God is good.

I can ...

Feel His Goodness

Be His Goodness

Do His Goodness

And...

That's not bad. 

For more Poetry Friday click here.