WHEN I WAS A KID in the sixties, I had to go to church twice on Sundays and again on Wednesday nights. Afterward, I could forget about God and go on about my life, which included big plans for my future.
When I left my parent’s home, I did not go to church and welcomed the extra time I had, especially Sunday mornings when I could sleep off the effects from the night before. I was in college, worked full-time, and with a boyfriend, I figured I was on my way to success.
Knowledge, money, and good sex made me happy.
And I was very busy trying to stay happy.
I did not need to go to church to know right from wrong, and since I spent so much time in church as a kid, I thought that I only needed Jesus for my free ticket into heaven—which I got when I prayed the sinner’s prayer, and wouldn’t need until I died—so God fell off my radar.
That’s about the time I decided there really was no such thing as sin.
Or absolute truth.
And what is right or wrong could be determined by society, of which I was a part. Colossians 2:8
The society had determined it was a woman’s legal right to abort her child more than a decade before my eyes were opened and I saw the possibility that there may be absolute truth. At that time, about 1986, a woman would lose the right to destroy the life within her upon reaching the twentieth week of her pregnancy.
I was visiting with a younger woman who was talking about how far “we” have come in gaining our rights when the question popped out of my mouth.
“But who is it to say that it is my right in the nineteenth week, but after the twentieth, I must have the child I don’t want?
“What if my life only falls apart in the twentieth week?
“If I can take my child before, and for good reason, why can I not take it at any time before it is born?
“Is this really a woman’s right to her body?”
I left that visit with the feeling that women were being exploited and not helped out of a problem. I thought about the abortions I had paid for, trying to help young girls in trouble, and I remembered the shame and guilt that was added to their hearts in making their “choice”.
Knowledge, money, and sex, did not make their lives happy, but it was a cause and effect of their unhappiness.
It was now the cause and effect of my own unhappiness.
If I had bothered to read my Bible, I would have learned that Jesus seemed to get the angriest with people who went to church and preached the laws, but most compassionate with those who were separated from God by their personal knowledge, money, or sexual activities.
He condemned no one, but he made it clear that we will condemn ourselves if we follow anyone or anything other than him.
Today, I have come to believe that I do not know the absolute truth, but there is no doubt in my mind that it exists.
Every day is an opportunity to admit that society is no smarter than a herd of sheep, and I am the dumbest of them all. Chasing knowledge, money, and sex, even in 1990 at thirty-two years old, I proved how stupid I was; doing the same things expecting a different result.
But, for no reason except that he loved me, and while I was not looking for him, and did not love him, he made time for me. Can you say “Baaa, Baa”? That Story Here
My sheep listen to my voice; I know them, and they follow me.—John 10:27
Enter by the narrow gate. For the gate is wide and the way is easy that leads to destruction, and those who enter by it are many. For the gate is narrow and the way is hard that leads to life, and those who find it are few.—Matthew 7:13-14 (ESV)
Acts 5:29, Galatians 5:19-21, John 10:10-11, Isaiah 53:6, 1 John 3:4, Romans 3:20, Psalm 25:5,John 8:31-32, John 1:17
As always, it is my intent and hope that my words may encourage you wherever you are in your journey.
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If anyone has ears to hear, let him hear.–Jesus (Mark 4:23)
I see 2 important threads (mane 3) in this post. I’m going to comment on “choice”. Before I became a Christian, I had abortions. I would like to think that after I met Christ that would not be a choice I would exercise, but I don’t really know. I remember in high school, a all girls catholic high school filled with sexually active girls, having an argument with Maria. Another girl was pregnant. Maria looked down her nose in full judgement at the horror. I turned to Maria and said, the difference between you and her is you haven’t got… Read more »