I had an idea for a thread after posting here in many threads about religion, God, and morality. There seems to be a lot of misunderstanding and misconceptions about Christians, so I thought I’d introduce myself. I hope to give each of you a little glimpse of an average guy like me who does his best to follow the teachings of Jesus. Some of the following might be shocking and may or may not change your opinion of at least one Christian - me. Feel free to post questions you’ve always wanted to ask or just PM me if you’d like to discuss things outside of the thread. I’m by no means a theologian or a minister, but I’ll do my best from what I know in my limited study. Am I nuts for being this honest in a public forum and opening myself to questions? We’ll see. Ok, here we go. I’ll try not to put in too much detail for the sake of time and not boring you all to death.
First of all, I'll give you some background. I was born into a Christian family, both my Mom and Dad’s side have quite a few believers on each side. Needless to say, I was in church before I was born (my Mom played the piano for church when she was pregnant with me ). My parents took me to church every Sunday where I attended Sunday School and kids church. At the age of six, I accepted Jesus as my Savior. I attended two different small Christian schools K-12. It wasn’t until I was baptized at age 14 that I really started to study and explore my faith. At age 15 I got my first job and had my faith challenged by my co-workers. That experience forced me to go through the thought process of whether my faith was really mine or just what my parents taught me. Almost daily I was quizzed by my co-workers who fired many questions at me about just about every facet of life. I did good on some and failed miserably on others. Those experiences prompted me to dig deeper and study my faith and the reasons why I believed in Jesus and Christianity. I studied other religions along with my own to broaden my perspective. My parents were probably scared to death I would choose another faith, but my studies served to confirm my faith, not weaken it.
From age 16 to 19 I chose to go on a rebellious streak. Lying to my parents about various things and dating a girl that I knew they'd hate just to prove I could do what I wanted. That was soooo cruel to that girl, ended up breaking up with her and hooked up with a hot girl I'd been chasing for awhile. I honestly did love her after awhile and we messed around in just about every way possible. Sure I didn’t have sex with her, but I did things I should have saved for my wife. Never drank or smoked pot and didn’t do every girl in sight, but I did not live my faith as I should have during that time. After I graduated and got my first full-time job reality set in – my girlfriend cheated on me and then broke up with me. The breakup shattered my world at that time, since I had made my girlfriend my whole world. Refocusing my priorities back on my faith and my future, I decided to forget the girl, attend college and get my generals completed while I decided what to do for a career. Half way through college I met my wife, we dated for a year, were engaged for a year and we’ve now been married for 4 years and have 2 kids. So that’s the summary of life up until now! Sorry if it was not extremely exciting, but I think it give perspective on how I got to today.
Next I’ll address the Christians (or those who call themselves such) that from your posts, many of you have apparently encountered. “Some of the most arrogant, sanctimonious, self-righteous, evil, vile things to ever be considered a human being . . .” according to one post. Ouch. Yes, even those Christians who think they are the best (darned self-righteous pricks) can jump back into their human nature in the blink of an eye and become an asshole. Through my experience with people who called themselves Christians I have found that to be true more times than I like to remember. I had a tendency to look at myself as better than others until I was on the receiving end of judgmental self-righteous tirades. Fortunately, God pointed out to me that, at times, I was the same way as those mean people I had started to hate. “What? That can’t be right, God! THEY’re the jerks!” After that realization about myself, I jettisoned my self-righteousness with God’s help. I was horrified when it dawned on me someone may reject Christianity because of rudeness and snobbery on MY part. It was the proverbial “don’t point at other people, there’s 4 fingers pointing back at you” lesson. From then on I made it my mission to show true Christianity to everyone I meet. Have I succeeded? Many times I could have done better. I personally have said just about every curse word you can come up with (repeatedly at times), flipped people off in traffic, and cursed in BF2 chat just to name a few. Talk about embarrassing. I just get done giving someone the finger while driving and God puts the thought in my mind, “Um, aren’t you trying to be a good Christian? Yeah, we need to work on that finger thing.” I admit it, I can be a jerk when I don’t keep my nature in check. Probably even in here, though I hope I’ve apologized if that’s the case. All right, that’s enough soul bearing for one day.
I enjoy spending time with my wife and kids, music (rock and metal are my favorites, but I like some jazz and a very little bit of classical), reading various fiction and non-fiction books, video games, a good drink on the weekend, and of course discussing issues of our day online. Discuss away, just don’t flame me too hard for the length of this post, I tried to keep it short!
Disclaimer: If I've bored you to death and everyone refuses to reply as punishment, enjoy gaming and have a Merry Christmas. If anyone does choose to ask deep theological questions (here or by PM) after reading this, I question your sanity. Seriously, though, I will do my best. I don't guarantee the best answer you've ever heard, but it will be honest.
First of all, I'll give you some background. I was born into a Christian family, both my Mom and Dad’s side have quite a few believers on each side. Needless to say, I was in church before I was born (my Mom played the piano for church when she was pregnant with me ). My parents took me to church every Sunday where I attended Sunday School and kids church. At the age of six, I accepted Jesus as my Savior. I attended two different small Christian schools K-12. It wasn’t until I was baptized at age 14 that I really started to study and explore my faith. At age 15 I got my first job and had my faith challenged by my co-workers. That experience forced me to go through the thought process of whether my faith was really mine or just what my parents taught me. Almost daily I was quizzed by my co-workers who fired many questions at me about just about every facet of life. I did good on some and failed miserably on others. Those experiences prompted me to dig deeper and study my faith and the reasons why I believed in Jesus and Christianity. I studied other religions along with my own to broaden my perspective. My parents were probably scared to death I would choose another faith, but my studies served to confirm my faith, not weaken it.
From age 16 to 19 I chose to go on a rebellious streak. Lying to my parents about various things and dating a girl that I knew they'd hate just to prove I could do what I wanted. That was soooo cruel to that girl, ended up breaking up with her and hooked up with a hot girl I'd been chasing for awhile. I honestly did love her after awhile and we messed around in just about every way possible. Sure I didn’t have sex with her, but I did things I should have saved for my wife. Never drank or smoked pot and didn’t do every girl in sight, but I did not live my faith as I should have during that time. After I graduated and got my first full-time job reality set in – my girlfriend cheated on me and then broke up with me. The breakup shattered my world at that time, since I had made my girlfriend my whole world. Refocusing my priorities back on my faith and my future, I decided to forget the girl, attend college and get my generals completed while I decided what to do for a career. Half way through college I met my wife, we dated for a year, were engaged for a year and we’ve now been married for 4 years and have 2 kids. So that’s the summary of life up until now! Sorry if it was not extremely exciting, but I think it give perspective on how I got to today.
Next I’ll address the Christians (or those who call themselves such) that from your posts, many of you have apparently encountered. “Some of the most arrogant, sanctimonious, self-righteous, evil, vile things to ever be considered a human being . . .” according to one post. Ouch. Yes, even those Christians who think they are the best (darned self-righteous pricks) can jump back into their human nature in the blink of an eye and become an asshole. Through my experience with people who called themselves Christians I have found that to be true more times than I like to remember. I had a tendency to look at myself as better than others until I was on the receiving end of judgmental self-righteous tirades. Fortunately, God pointed out to me that, at times, I was the same way as those mean people I had started to hate. “What? That can’t be right, God! THEY’re the jerks!” After that realization about myself, I jettisoned my self-righteousness with God’s help. I was horrified when it dawned on me someone may reject Christianity because of rudeness and snobbery on MY part. It was the proverbial “don’t point at other people, there’s 4 fingers pointing back at you” lesson. From then on I made it my mission to show true Christianity to everyone I meet. Have I succeeded? Many times I could have done better. I personally have said just about every curse word you can come up with (repeatedly at times), flipped people off in traffic, and cursed in BF2 chat just to name a few. Talk about embarrassing. I just get done giving someone the finger while driving and God puts the thought in my mind, “Um, aren’t you trying to be a good Christian? Yeah, we need to work on that finger thing.” I admit it, I can be a jerk when I don’t keep my nature in check. Probably even in here, though I hope I’ve apologized if that’s the case. All right, that’s enough soul bearing for one day.
I enjoy spending time with my wife and kids, music (rock and metal are my favorites, but I like some jazz and a very little bit of classical), reading various fiction and non-fiction books, video games, a good drink on the weekend, and of course discussing issues of our day online. Discuss away, just don’t flame me too hard for the length of this post, I tried to keep it short!
Disclaimer: If I've bored you to death and everyone refuses to reply as punishment, enjoy gaming and have a Merry Christmas. If anyone does choose to ask deep theological questions (here or by PM) after reading this, I question your sanity. Seriously, though, I will do my best. I don't guarantee the best answer you've ever heard, but it will be honest.