Faith and life in a rational mind.
Tears welled as I sat in Lucas Oil Stadium for the National Eucharistic Congress. Since I’d left a Pentecostal church more than 30 years ago, I’d steadfastly avoided what I considered religious emotionalism. As I gazed around the stadium, four words came to mind: “You are not alone.”
One of the mind-blowing ideas I encountered through the Catholic church is the understanding that God – who is not bound by time or place – can remove those barriers for us.
When I entered the Catholic church, I left a piece of my heart in the Evangelical world. Yet I spent many years with a chip on my shoulder.
Why are our concepts of life after death so varied? I believe this comes from our overall discomfort with death – our mortality and that of our loved ones.
As I walked from his room, my dad called me back. “I just wanted to say I love you,” he said. As it turned out, those were the last words I would ever hear from him.
If the Catholics had gotten it right – or even mostly right – about the Bible, I felt compelled as a Bible-believing Christian to examine their teachings.
The Pew Research Center recently found that 27 percent of Americans think of themselves as spiritual but not religious. The New York Times calls them “Americans who seem to want some connection to the divine, but who don’t feel affiliated with traditional religion.”
As I stood, awkward and embarrassed, in front of the packed room, I had my first encounter with a fear that God does not know me. Why would every child in that line experience God, except me?
I’ve met Christians who never seem to experience doubt. We can call them blessed. However, God used Thomas’ doubt as a lesson for the rest of us.
To be honest, there are labels I apply to myself. I am Christian and Catholic and would call myself both evangelical and pro-life. And yet I hate the idea that others believe they can understand much about me based on those labels.
