Until the summer I had a head-on collision with Jesus, my
only experience with seriously ‘religious’ folks was a Seventh-Day Adventist
boy from my first grade class who got into a lot of trouble because his parents
didn't allow him to attend school on Saturdays (yes, we did have school 6 days
a week before our communist government had mercy on us and put us on a Monday
through Friday schedule). I secretly wished my parents wouldn't allow me
to go to school at least one day a week either – religious reasons or not - but
they were good communist who believed strongly in the value of education, so I
was out of luck. Other than D.Dj., I didn't know anybody – not a single soul -
who believed in God, much less followed Jesus.
An orthodox priest who happened to be our neighbor didn't
even try to pretend that his wearing the long black robe signifying his
religious authority had anything to do with the existence of God. His
priestly office was just a job like any other that helped pay the bills and
provided some extra money for Animal Kingdom chocolates and cheap brandy he
seemed to enjoy very much. I loved him dearly for lack of pretense and
for introducing me into the fascinating world of collecting photos of exotic
animals and putting them in well-protected albums. We swapped the
duplicates of our Animal Kingdom pictures while eating the thin chocolates,
making sure the pictures remain pristine. We never talked about God, or
Jesus, or any other similar potentially volatile topic that could ruin our
perfect friendship.
But, everything was different now. Sharing my personal
story about meeting Christ with anyone who cared to listen was just a part of
this new life of faith. Living in the city with the population of more
than 1.5 million people, I was convinced that tucked away somewhere there must
be others who truly knew Jesus and was determined to ferret them out. I threw
myself into scouring various resources in search for an evangelical church
within a 100 miles radius. After a couple of weeks of research, I discovered
that there were actually three, all relatively easily accessible with public
transportation. I was ecstatic. I couldn't wait to meet my new eternal
family so we can grow, mature and live together happily ever after.
No comments:
Post a Comment