[Faith-talk] Fwd: Today's Turning Point with David Jeremiah

[T. Joseph Carter]

Lisa,

I'm studying special education at Western Oregon University.  This is a
new vocation for me--and I believe it is a vocation.  I am called to do
this, it's not just more education for a job.  Previously I was what we
affectionately refer to in the tech industry as a "Code Monkey".  That is,
a highly evolved form of pink-colored primate which effectively turns
large amounts of caffeine into software.  Believe it or not, those skills
have served me well in my new vocation already.

Before I became Catholic?  Well, I was confirmed Easter 2006.  Around that
time three years earlier, I had a conversation with a person about how I
wasn't really happy doing what I was doing.  She asked what I wanted to
do, and I told her what I thought was important, and why it could never
actually happen.  She asked if I believed in God or any creator for that
matter, and I said I figured if he was there, he had long since written
off this mudball and everybody on it.  She asked me, if there was really a
God, would I agree to let him do all of these things I said couldn't
happen, if it were his will to do so.  More to shut her up than anything,
I agreed.

And then something happened.  I was accepted into a Writing 121 class I
needed later than should have been possible.  This was the least of
things, and certainly not proof that there was any kind of creator that
was taking care of me, but it shouldn't have happened.  Neither should the
next dozen or so things that were impossible--but they all happened.  By
October, I had reached the, "Okay okay!  I get it, you ARE there, and you
DO care what happens to us!" stage.  It was another two years before I
began asking the question, "so I believe in God, now what?"

At that point, my friend suggested that her priest would be willing to
talk to me.  I was expecting to hear why the Catholic Church is the One
True Faith and all of that, but I went because I had to start somewhere
and my friend said I'd enjoy talking with him.  We talked about many
things, most importantly what it means to be a Christian (but not what it
means to be Catholic--that was only mentioned once, in passing), the
importance of prayer, and attentiveness to God's efforts to communicate to
and through us.

He also lent me a lecture series that is truly wonderful on the early
Christian church done by a guy who teaches at Emory.  It took another six
months to digest that material, by which time I had learned about the
origin of some of the important things central to Catholic faith that were
missing from my experience of other faiths.

As a child, my sister's father decided that we "needed to get religion",
and consequently this happened at a Southern Baptist church.  We went
through the motions, but I don't think any of us really had what could be
called a conversion experience.  Not two years later, I had abandoned
Christianity for some bit of Newage (that's not a typo, it really should
rhyme with sewage), and later abandoned even that.

I see one major problem in the Catholic Church, and it is the same problem
that affects all religion: God is represented by men, and men sometimes
are very poor representatives.  We have our good and our bad, in the
laity, priests, bishops, and even popes from time to time.  It seems to
work out in the long run.  Interestingly, it seems to work out much the
same in other denominations.

Thank you for your kind response.  I'll take all of the blessings I can
get when it comes to my academics--I am pretty sure I will need them!

Joseph

On Fri, Jan 11, 2008 at 03:00:54PM -0700, Lisa Felix wrote:
> Hi Joseph,
>  
> So glad to hear from you.
>  
> Wow!  A graduate student, you say?  What are you studying? 
>  
> What were you before you converted to Catholicism?  Or, did you not know God before your conversion?  If you were part of another faith, which one was it?  I hope I am not being too personal.  I'm just curious why you would choose Catholicism over something else.  The most important thing for someone of any denomination of the Christian faith is to have a personal relationship with Jesus Christ.  Next, I believe, would be to bring about a unity between the denominations.  A person can attend a Catholic, Baptist, Lutheran, Presbyterian, etc., and even a non-denominational church very regularly, and even be quite involved with the church, and still not know Christ.  I have seen this.  It's quite sad.  One day, we will be standing before our Lord, and to some He will say as you said, " I never knew you.".
>  
> I was raised in the Catholic religion as a child.  At age 8, I decided it wasn't for me.  During a chatechism class, I accepted Christ into my heart.  I asked Him to be in me and be my Lord.  It wasn't until I was 14 that I began going to a baptist church, and shortly thereafter, I began going to a non-denominational church.  That is where I now prefer to be, though I am not against the other denominations of the Christian Faith.  I have a relatively close friend that is Catholic.
>  
> Romans 1:18-20 says, "The wrath of God is being revealed from heaven against all the godlessness and wickedness of men who suppress the truth by their wickedness, since what may be known about God is plain to them.  for since the creation of the world God's invisible qualities-his eternal power and divine nature-have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that men are without excuse."  God created the heavens and the earth and everything this is in them.  Just by looking at creation we can see that there is a God.  Even atheists have no excuse.
>  
> Joseph, it has been enlightening speaking with you.  Thanks for taking the time to chime in when you have the time to do so.  May God bless you in your studies.
>  
> Warmly,
> Lisa