Almost a year ago, I remember wavering so delicately on whether I should write about my journey of faith. Someone very dear to me suggested that I should just walk through these days carefully, silently, and not preach to the masses about how wrong Fundamentalism is because a lot of good and godly people have their foundation there and how earth-shattering it is to read of yet another bitter survivor. And how it doesn’t help the cause of Christ.
As time has passed, I’ve thought long and hard about what they said and I realize now they were mostly speaking from fear. Fear of being convinced that a portion of what they’ve been taught about God was questionable.
I’ve had to decide whether to keep my mouth shut and simply pray for them, or whether to open my heart and share my story no matter the consequences. And obviously, through the past year, I decided to share a few pieces of the story.
Two weeks ago, I sat in front of my computer, with a gaping mouth, as I realized how politics was the same sort of game. Some friends had honest concerns about what I’d written, some were politely interested, some absolutely agreed, but others were horrified that “I was running to the other side of the political aisle just because I didn’t want to agree with Fundamentalists on a candidate.” Which is complete and utter nonsense.
It’s taken me a few weeks to ponder if writing about politics is something I even want to do. But once again, I find myself at the same place. How can I keep my mouth shut on issues when it truly affects our everyday lives, the people we know and love, and our country’s future? Does it really matter that it causes such a ruckus? 😉 Isn’t it worth it? Thus, be prepared. I will probably jump into politics again.
Please note that I’m still a girl who is planning on telling her stories. Stories of faith, stories of politics, and stories of my everyday life. The one thing I’ve learned in the past two years is that wearing a masque is absolutely the worst thing you can do. Just be real.
And wouldn’t you know it, as I’m rediscovering what it means to be real when talking about change in my life, even more change starts happening.
Within the past few days, I’ve been contacted out of the blue by several different people related to exceptionally painful and dark chapters of my life who wanted to help me talk through some of the pain and share in the healing. When we were driving home from Maryland on Saturday, I told Daniel that it feels like God is up to something. There are just too many coincidences, with too many people, in such a small timeframe to not make me gently and patiently wait to see what’s ahead. I think I need to hold onto my hat!
We’ve also found a church family. At least, we are 99.9% sure. Okay, maybe totally sure. Once again, the whole situation has God written all over it. We’ve visited I don’t know how many churches here and have even walked out during the middle of a few of the services and have even skipped some Sunday’s (horror!)
We’ve played a lot of angsty music (while dancing with the salad spinner because that is just WHAT YOU DO when you have a toddler), talked apologetics over spaghetti, and encouraged each other that God has a purpose in all of this and that we will find like-minded believers who ache to speak Christ to the community around us. And we’re pretty sure He has.
Also, there was a pretty big sign from God that has us thinking He’ll strike us dead if we don’t become apart of this church family. The venue is in a beautifully restored Ribbon Mill factory just a block or so from our house and is upstairs from the Obama headquarters for Carlisle. Um. HELLO GOD? WE ARE LISTENING. 😉
And if you want to hear about even more change, I can’t believe I’m actually considering becoming a vegetarian, I’m starting NaNoWriMo on November 1, Daniel is currently in California for a week, I’m pledging handmade for the holidays, I’m contemplating getting rid of the TV again, and we have about 90% stopped using our car and are walking everywhere instead.
I also want to start a Christmas CD Swap. To be apart of it, you’d need to be able to create a mixed CD of your favorite Christmas songs from all sorts of genres and make enough CDs to cover all of those participating in the project (i.e. if 10 people sign up then you need to make 10 CDs). Anyone interested?
There you have it. Ch-ch-change!