I find that I'm talking on the phone with my mother a lot more than I thought I would. I figured I'd call her a few times a week, and talk for about 10 minutes. Instead, I call her almost every day, and talk for well over a half hour.
We usually talk about the Bible, my old church, and my dad/brother. Last night, we talked about my brother. Hebrews 12:11 says that (to paraphrase) you won't like being chastened now, but in the future, you'll be grateful it happened.
I used to say that my parents had 18 years with me, and that they had their chance. They aren't happy with how I turned out? Hey, they had their time. But the God convicted me of something: I don't like how my brother turned out. Hey, I had 14 years with him.
From things people have said, I've seen and heard, I would have to say that I feel my brother is still unsaved. I'm praying that God would convict him of that so badly that he couldn't ignore his need anymore, and that Tyler (my brother) would allow the Holy Spirit to enter in.
Same thing goes for my dad.
Also, I have a boss who just likes to bother everyone, and can be a complete jerk. He grew up Catholic, and is now a non-church goer. He does know I go to church and am a Christian. I thought he was just like, "Eh, whatever. New guy's a holy roller. Whatever."
I was wrong.
Last week, I said something along the lines of, "Man, that sucks." (In all fairness, I shouldn't have said that) My boss, Tony, stopped what he was doing, looked at me, and goes, "Huh. I didn't think you Christians talked like that."
He's already told me that he stopped going to church because he saw a double standard in his old church as a child. The people were outwardly righteous at church, but just like lost men away from church.
If this man is to be won for Christ, he's going to have to see a Christian, or Christians, who is/are totally sold out for God and are the same at church on Sunday as they are on Wednesday morning.
Please pray for these people.
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Kyle, sorry about your accident. The main thing is that no one was hurt. This is all part of life - life's tough but we all get through it one way or another. Everything that happens is a learning experience. Yes, people can be jerks, godly, happy, sad, etc., it takes all kinds and you'll quickly learn that everyone is different. No two people are alike. I hope that you and your boss get along. Kill'm with kindness. Remember, I always told you to be kind to everyone you meet because you never know what kind of a day they might have had. God bless you my precious. I love you, Nanny
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ReplyDeleteI get that an awful lot- people look at me and say "Eh, you!? You're a christian!?!?" At first I thought it was a defect on their part and not mine, that they were just surprised because I'm generally considered the "smart" one, and as we all "know," the intelligentsia are all non-believers. Panned out in the end it was because I swore like a sailor and was generally very caustic about life. And when I sat down and thought about how much a part of my life that was, I thought to myself: why am I this way? If I believe that in the end love will triumph over hate, and life over death, why am I this way? All I could answer myself was that I was, and all the same it was very hard to change...so I'm still cracking at it. There are those people you look at, and with them saying anything you KNOW they're Christians, you know? I suppose that's what I'm trying to do right now. So I feel your pain :p
ReplyDeleteOf course, even if it were possible to live your whole life entirely consistent with the gospel...you'd probably get mocked even more...as I've been finding out the hard way. And then I. anyhow, get even more tempted to get bitter, defensive, and go back to mocking them. Of course, Paul had some very well developed greco-roman rhetoric which was designed to strike at the hearts of other, but there's such a fine line between using it to "reasonably shame" others and making fools of them- which drives them farther away from the church- that I'm just trying to work out less aggressive responses, you know? It very well could be the hardest thing I've ever tried to do in my life.