Questions of Faith

I think I am starting to understand what the teenage years are going to be like.

"Mom and Dad, you don't understand."

"But," say we.

"You never listen!"

"But," say we.

We took E to East Hill Church here in Gresham last night. His "girlfriend" (can 12 yo's have girlfriends?) was in the play. It was a play on Barrabas, the criminal who was released instead of Jesus. Barrabas was on a beach thinking about how to live with the fact that he was condemned for crimes he did and was released so that Jesus would die. Eric's friend played the role of a child, asking Barrabas the kind of questions that only a child can ask. She did a superb job, as did her mom....who played her mom.

Afterward there was an alter call. I did not know this would affect Eric the way it did.

We attend a Lutheran church. I attended a baptist church through high school and college. Jodie and I met up again at a non-denominational church in 1990. When they would not stop preaching that I should be healed, and I could not shake my disability and enjoy the "fullness of God," we went back to the church of Jodie's youth, the Lutheran church. The message of God's grace -- no strings attached -- drew me then and continues to draw me 18 years later.

On the way home from a wonderful evening, E took issue with the fact the Lutherans don't choose to accept Christ...their parents "make" them be baptized as babies. E is going through confirmation right now. It started a couple months ago and will go on for a couple years.

Jodie tried to explain the Lutheran beliefs to E. He would not listen. Faith is a gift from God. Baptism confirmation, our whole life is acknowledgment of that gift. It is what God has done for us, not what we do for him.

I understand his concerns. I lost a lot of friends when I met Jodie and started going to the Lutheran church. My Baptist friends thought I lost my way to a Lutheran girl.

The differences in the Christian faiths is so often semantics.

E has a lifetime to figure things out for himself. Maybe when he is old enough to drive the Lutheran church will not be the one for him. It really would not bother me if he finds another road.

E is on the journey with us. He sees how imperfect we are, but how God carries Jodie and I. Life will come at E. Victories, disappointments; successes, defeats; friends who are there, friends who fail.

I pray that he always sees a way to God, and has respect for ours.