Confession

One more out-of-order post, then back to the series. I am a Must-See TV, Thursday night on NBC kind of girl. From the days of Seinfeld to Friends and now, of course, The Office plus all the one-season-wonders in between, NBC is where it's at.

A few years ago, though, people started talking about this other show--Grey's Anatomy. It started with my sister and then my friends. Usually it is said in a "don't tell that I watch this but I do and did you see it too?!?!?!" sort of way. I had been happy in my NBC ways and was perfectly willing to be the person who didn't watch Grey's. Well, I've been watching here and there. I've really only seen 3 full episodes (did you watch last night?), but I'm hooked. I'll admit it. Trash television at its best, and I'm right there watching. Fortunately since my friends watch, I know the basic plotline, so I don't feel like I have too much catching up to do.

There it is. Now you know the dirty truth. I still don't watch Desperate Housewives. Does that redeem me?

Back to the present....

OK, this is a departure from my recent series of blogs. I don't watch a lot of TV, but since we have DVR now, I can track a lot of shows that I had given up on. Anyway...GO DAVID COOK!!!! I am so glad he won. That sappy squinty-eyed 17-yr-old just wasn't cutting it for me.

And speaking of voting--I noticed an interesting stat in the paper this morning. The Mail Tribune listed the Oregon Primary Results. As a Republican, I abstained from voting. McCain virtually has the nomination and the other primaries were nominal enough that I was unwilling to take a stand for people who I didn't know. I am, however very interested in the democratic primary. What a year. Here is the stat that caught my eye--600,210 Democratic votes were reported in Oregon--Clinton received 248,137 of them. On the Republican side only 326,900 votes were cast. And despite the drastically reduced Republican turnout and Oregon's proclivity to vote for fringe people like Ron Paul, John McCain received 277,597 votes--29,460 more than Clinton.

I know, I know, you can manipulate staticstics to say just about anything, and you can explain away outcomes, but I still think it is curious. Back to American Idol--maybe the outspoken comments of the judges proclaiming "sappy and 17" the winner were really intended to inspire those of us who liked David Cook to get out the vote. I didn't vote in that one either.

My Story--pt 2

Sex and pot tended to be the culprits. (What a way to start an entry!) Lucky me, I usually got to hear it before anyone else. Throughout high school I had most of my closest friends (and some that were not so close) have the “Well, I finally did it” conversation with me. Even as I am writing this I pray that I responded appropriately to my friends’ confessions. At my core I despised the sin, but even then I knew that expressing that needed to be tempered with love. I don’t know if I did that well or not. Regardless, once those lines were crossed these friends consistently behaved as if there was no turning back.

I share this for a few reasons. First--to say that God’s hand was on my life, protecting me from those situations. I was so sheltered that when, last year, one of my students had (accidentally) left her baggie of green leaves behind, I had to get a co-worker to confirm that yes indeed it was what I thought it was. Second—because if I had sinned in a “major” way like that, I might have followed the paths of my friends and just walked away from God.

I felt—as my friends had—that there was no room in the church for Christian sinners. Pre-Christian sinners, of course, were welcome. I can’t tell you how this was communicated to us. There were certainly no sermons on the evils of smoking cigarettes or dancing. We were taught about the consequences—spiritual and emotional—of pre-marital sex, but there was seldom mention of redemption after the fact. I had a long conversation about this with my husband driving to Eugene a few weekends ago. We agreed that if we sat down with any of the staff members of the church, they would communicate exactly the appropriate steps and behaviors towards a “Christian sinner.” However I feel like the atmosphere of the church was not conducive to restoring a fellow believer to righteousness. The key word here is “feel.” Maybe if I had been the one to fall away, I would have a different outlook.

To be continued...(just 1 more part--hang on!)

My Story--part 1

Recently I promised an entry about going back to my home church. As I began to write, I realized that in order to avoid background tangents, I should share the history of my walk. My testimony. This might take a few separate entries, so bear with me.

I am what you might call a “Cradle Christian.” Simply put, I do not remember a time when I was unsaved. I do, however, distinctly remember a time when at 4 or 5 years old I was asked when I accepted Christ and I replied that I did it when I was 2.

My early church years were at a Missionary Alliance Church in Veneta, OR. I still know nothing about the theology of that church, just that I liked going and they were really good at missionary weeks. I still remember that you can tell the difference between an African elephant and an Asian elephant by how many toes they have.

At 9 years old we moved 30 minutes away to Eugene where my father worked. I transferred to Willamette Christian School (Assembly of God-affiliated). It was through my 5th grade oh-so-pentecostal teacher that I discovered the Holy Spirit’s role in my life and the joy of studying God’s word beyond just reading it for the nice stories.

We began attending First Baptist Church after we moved. I was baptized that year. At chuch, I got involved in everything I could—Awana, Camp Harlow, Student Leadership, even the handbell choir. The church was blessed with a large library and after Awana on Wednesday nights I would load up with Christian fiction (I loved Grace Livingston Hill) and generally have them read by Friday.

Church surrounded me with Godly people who mentored me in my Christian walk. I met my husband there (though at age 10 I wasn’t really looking for a life partner yet). I traveled on student missions trips to Mexico which I discovered minister more to the students going than to the people to whom we were supposed to minister. My closest friends in high school were friends from church. We studied and grew together. However, one by one, they fell away….to be continued.