I was cleaning my cat’s litter box this morning and it occurred to me that I hadn’t cleaned the blog’s spam trap recently. Just like my cat’s litter box, without regular cleaning, it gets pretty nasty and smelly in there. So equipped with surgical mask and asbestos gloves, I opened the lid and starting scooping. There were the usual incendiary comments begging for a click:
To the site admins reanidg [sic] this comment, Yeah figures, my comment must be approved by the site admins before it will appear publicly, sounds like the work of a good communist, controlling the media so any bad comments do not get past the censors to make an opinion heard.
Like any good communist censor, I ash-canned those. The rest of what I found was the usual spambot generated stuff—sometimes the spambots offer a more cogent remark than anything in the actual post, but never mind—today I found this little item from “Maria”:
Catholic is not Christian. Catholicism leads to eternal tornmet [sic] in hell, because catholicism teaches works for salvation, and that is a false gospel of works (Galatians 1:6-9) that is against JESUS’S free gift of salvation! And catholicism will not give anyone a PERSONAL RELATIONSHIP with Jesus!
And it goes on. Now regardless of whether “Maria” is a spambot or not, I still thought this was worth addressing, because this is something I hear all the time. In fact, I used to say the same thing myself…
…mulling over your post from today. To me it seems, as people age, regardless of the path the middle of their lives took, many do reflect on lessons learned and experiences from their early life, thus why so many, as you stated return to the faith of their youth, that they may have wandered from or questioned as young adults. I can understand that orbicular path some follow, but doesn’t that also hold true for those who were taught less positive lessons in youth? For some wouldn’t it be just as natural to revert to negatives as it is to someone else’s positives? Learned lessons in life are learned lessons in life. Fortunate are the ones who received early nurturing and positive lessons that left them feeling safe and secure Someone who didn’t, even after many decades of trying to convince themselves otherwise, may find in the end, they weren’t successful after all.
Rob,
I am VERY happy that you found your way back!
I was one of those RCs who shared your disillusionment with the church while growing up, and I took a similar path as yours. While I have ‘landed’ at a different place (a non-denominational evangelical Christian church), I have come to understand that ‘faith’–real, redemptive, saving faith–happens in every Christ-centered church. There are moves of the grace of God going on in hearts of every congregation, I’m sure (provided that the Gospel is being preached in all its richness).
To me, it’s imperative that we remember that there is “One faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, who is over all, through all, and in all” (Eph. 4:5-6)
I’m sure The Church, and the cause of Christ in general would be much more well served if we put our efforts into calling out the Spirit’s work within each Christian, and encouraging deeper journeys of faith–no matter what denomination they attend–then in pointing fingers, like so many people do.
May God continue to bless you on your spiritual journey!
Well said Pastor Dave!!