CHRIST IN WINTER:
Reflections on Faith for the Years of Winter
Recently an old high
school acquaintance came across my email address via another high school
acquaintance. He sends out group emails. I’m now included in that group.
He was a year ahead of me
in school. I did not know him well. We did not hang around together. But in a
small school, you’re always in some of the same activities, and you get
acquainted that way. I remember him as a nice kid, just a regular kid, like all
the rest of us.
These days he is very
religious. Every day I get several emails from him quoting Bible verses, many
of them having to do with love and forgiveness. Also every day he sends several
irrational rants, such as: “Obama is a socialist muslim [sic] devil” and “you
can tell Moochelle Obama hates America because she holds her hand wrong during
the national anthem” and “the Obama daughters are ugly and dress like sluts”
and “the supreme court is taking away our freedom” and “the gay agenda is all
about taking over and putting straights in concentration camps.”
I think he really wants to
be a Christian, to believe in and live in the love of God. But he is pulled
between 9/11 and 5/19. On 9/11, Christians can either give in to fear, which is
what the terrorist agenda is all about, or we can face our fear with 5/19, II
Corinthians 5:19, “God was in Christ, reconciling the world to Himself, and God
has given us this ministry of reconciliation.”
The first thing the angels
say to announce the coming of the Christ is, “Fear not.” It’s hard to be a
Christian when you are so afraid. Why is my old schoolmate so scared? I don’t
know, but I do know he is old. It must be so miserable to live one’s final days
in that kind of fear.
I remember him as that
regular kid, and I pray for him.
JRMcF
I tweet as yooper1721.
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