Decisions and other things......

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I made a decision the other day. God's been calling me to be a celibate for a long time and guess what? Well I finally said a certain yes! I made a choice to take him up on his call. So what does that mean? Well it means I won't be getting married....for starters. Second it means....well I dunno but I know God's got a plan. It's exciting. 

But anyway I thought I would put up this post. Nothing really to do with the above subject. I just thought I'd share that first then share this. Partly felt to post it because for the last week I've found myself becoming kind of smitten with the Catholic Church.

Yeah, that's what I said. 

It's too much to explain now, but I promise I'll get onto it in a future post. Now I'll leave you with this post started on the 10th July this year and left saved in my documents because at the time I wasn't sure whether to post it or not.  Enjoy....

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So I was in town the other day (Birmingham City Centre to non Brummies) and I came across a young lady on the 'Save our packs' campaign. I was out as part of a team talking to people about God. So when two campaigners for different causes meet you expect there to be a trade-off, right?

Well..........let me continue.

I asked her 'Why are you campaigning so late'. It was 10pm. She said she was going back to her Uni, and invited me to continue talking with her as we both headed that way. Firstly I was sharing my life with her, my time at Uni, and how I didn't pursue a career in my field because I wanted to do 'something to do with God'. She was very attentive as I shared and she was doing a very similar course to the one I did. We continued to talk and I found out she was from a Catholic background. She asked me a lot of questions on various things, mostly to do with Protestants (which was her nice way of labelling me) and the practices of some prominent Pentecostal people and churches, which she disagreed with.

Strangely, quite a few things struck me about this lady and many times I was stuck listening or just smiling. These things included:

• How she refused to chew her words, speaking plainly on issues such as tithing, money mismanagement, and 'anointed handkerchiefs'.
• The fact that I agreed with a lot of what she said, though she was a Catholic and I was a so called Protestant.
• The thoughts she had on how her faith should be practiced.
• Her seemingly deep understanding of the Catholic tradition and belief in it.
• Her explanation on the need for structure in the church.

Though I didn't agree with her views on everything, like the need for hierarchy in the church, saint status, the need for relics and other things, I was surprised at how much this young lady knew and how seriously she took her faith, though she wasn't practicing for various reasons. The need for discerning the body of Christ when taking the bread and wine with any confessions or reconciliations made beforehand, the respect she had for authority and laws of the Catholic church concerning women priests, and the fact that she slipped in that 'even though (she) may believe (she’s) called in that area, the word of the authority stands', all left me a bit awestruck. I said so many times realising I'd have to leave the conversation sooner or later how much I enjoyed talking with her.

Something that topped it off was when I asked her if she had a Bible, thinking it would be a New Jerusalem Bible (a newer, simpler Catholic translation) if any. Her answer surprised me. She said she had a Douay Rheims Bible because she prefers accuracy over the simpler phrases in the New Jerusalem one. Her similarities to me caught me off guard, and we'd only been talking an hour! Yet she was Catholic.....and I was not. What a dilemma....or maybe there was something deeper in it. Maybe God was showing me something. 

Though she believed in the practices of Catholicism, some of which I couldn't agree nor reconcile myself with, and though she didn't agree with some of the things which I had said, we had found a common ground. She indeed was a believer in Christ's atonement, his death, his resurrection, his Sonship and his position in the Trinity. And whether I could get with it or not, we were bone of the same bone, and I was called to love her. 

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Questions: Could it be true that for so many years we have been separating ourselves from those who are actually a part of us? 

Could it be that God makes no distinction between Catholics and Protestants, but he's seeking those who are born of him whatever 'titles' they carry? 

Could it be that for years we've been fighting our brothers and sisters when we really should have extended our arms towards them to embrace and love them.........

Definitely food for thought......