My Summer

So, I am finally sitting down and writing about the summer. I really did enjoy my summer assignment. I know that most people look at it as if you can't preach then it is not really anything. But, this summer really helped me to see what I want to do. I enjoyed visiting as many people as I did and meeting with the post high people, no matter if there was only two most of the time. Do I count only having two people as a big let down? Not really. Having two people allowed me to really focus on their needs and talk to them about these needs. I did enjoy visiting the elderly people of the congregation also. I would have to say, even though I got in trouble for it, I most enjoyed those visits with people that lasted over two hours. Sure, I need to work on time management and getting more done in a day, but I learned so much about some of those people. Take for example a man who I went to church with almost my entire life. When all was said and done I visited him for six hours this summer. You know how much I enjoyed that? More than anyone else will ever realize. You see, three days after my last visit with him he had a severe stroke. A week later he went on to glory. Those six hours that I spent with him helped me to see what he was all about. It helped me to see the real Tony. He lived in South Holland for all but three months of his life, the last three months, which were spent in a trailer park just south of South Holland. He was a real pal. All that I learned from him about South Holland will remain firmly implanted in my mind. I also think of the elderly couple that no longer can go to church for fear of falling. They have serving hearts and these people just mean so much. The woman is such a nice woman and she sure does care for others. She kept me up to date on Tony when he was in the hospital, even though I did visit twice in the week that he was there. These are just two examples of people that really encouraged me this summer. Any moment that I really got down on myself this summer I could call one of the elderly people up in the congregation and it would just cheer me up to see how strong their faith was. I never heard anyone complain, even though a lot of them were limited. Tony had three knee replacement surgeries, yet he still made sure that everyone around him was comfortable. The other woman that I refer to, Jean, if asked how she was would turn the question on you, and say that as long as you were doing well she was too. It brings me to tears to think about these people and think how much they truly mean to me, and how I tried to show them Christian love, only to return to seminary to find out that I may not be capable enough to bring Christ to others on a professional level. I have this heart for God's people but it is like my body doesn't want to do the studying that is required.

If God is not your father, you have nothing.

We Pick and Choose What To Believe From Our Religions

So, I was reading this article this morning and it was very strange to me. There are couples getting married that are not of the same faith. Now, I am not talking about what some people call different faiths, as in Catholicism and Christianity, but rather Christianity and Buddhism. There is no justification with that. We are told not to be unequally yoked. If you are marrying a Buddhist you are being unequally yoked because they are not a believer. You can talk to me until you are blue in the face about how Catholics are unequally yoked with the Reformed folk, but that is a lost cause, so don't even try it. The woman in the first part of the article says that they (A Hindu and a Christian) are not strict in their dogma and they take the parts of each religion that they like. This sounds a lot like the early false church. If something is frightening it must not be true, right? I mean, after all, the God of the OT cannot be the God of the NT because there is a warm and fuzzy God in the NT, right? You are wrong again. Believers have to marry believers or you have lost what you are here for. I guess you can try and convert people, but if two people are strong on their beliefs it really is not going to work. I don't expect to wake up tomorrow morning to find my father being a CRC person. I also don't expect my mother to wake up tomorrow morning and discover that she wants to be Catholic.
Last night my mom told me things that were quite interesting. She was actually encouraged to go experience what other churches were about. She went to a Catholic church, a Lutheran church, and a few other churches when she was younger. You have to experience things to know that you don't agree with them. You can convey to others why you don't agree with their beliefs, but people can do the same thing to you. Be ready for that. But, if we are just strictly taking what we learn some place as the only truth we are suffering. If you have not really experienced it then you can't really talk about it. I have learned that history is written from four vantage points. Some vantage points are objective, some just make sure that whoever they are in support of actually wins. Do I accept all the stuff of the early church that is written down? Not really, but there are certain things that I hold as true. But in the times that we are living now there is so much difference that broad generalizations don't really work. For instance, to hit myself in the face, saying that all CRC's are in support of infant communion would be a broad generalization that is false.
But going back to the article, if your common thread is not faith in the same God, then you really have no common thread. Small town values mean absolutely nothing. We need to stop being such a pluralistic society. We really do. Instead of fighting denominations about their beliefs we need to focus on other religions. Islam is growing at an alarming rate and we are still stuck fighting against other denominations of Christianity.