Remember When?

Growing up in Dallas, Texas you would have thought I would have known who Jesus was. Wrong! You would have thought I would have known what a Christian was. Wrong! (I thought a Christian was someone who was born in America!) You would have thought I would have gone to church. Wrong!

It was not until I was in high school that I heard the Truth through a non-denominational ministry to High School students called Young Life. And when I heard it….I thought it was a bunch of “hog wash”, a lot of “baloney”, a bunch of made up stories that made NO sense! I was like the people referred to in Psalm 78:32 “…they refused to believe in his miracles.”

The bottom line: I did not believe. Could not believe.

But God patiently pursued me…gently revealing mysteries to me…using friends to show me the light. Then, one night, alone in my bedroom, God touched my heart and I determined then to follow Him for the rest of my life. It honestly humbles me....overwhelms me, to think that after generations and generations of ungodliness…God would want ME!

I had no idea what it looked like to follow Him...but I desperately wanted to. I had no idea what it meant to “become like Christ”. I had not been in church. I did not know the stories or the songs. I did not know the “rules”. But, to God, it did not matter!

AND, after marrying Ernie a few years later, I had NO idea how to be a minister’s wife!! I did not know ONE minister’s wife when I became one!! And you know, as I am pondering this now, perhaps that was not all bad! I am pretty sure my tendency would have been to try to be like one of them…instead of just being me.

There are many new believers who come into our churches and have no idea what the “rules” are. They are confused by our terminology and can be embarrassed because they don’t know the Bible stories or songs by heart.

Let’s remember a time when we might have felt out of place and insecure and be sensitive to them, disciple them, encourage them.