My story (part V)

Good Morning,

Moving right along on this thing . . . I  might just be done by Christmas. Babahaha. No worries. I won't torture you that long. Maybe just Halloween. (wink)

Okay, so we left off with the whole fam attending one church together. The Catholic Church. First in Washington and now here in Wisconsin. Good people here in Wisconsin. We like it here (of course, we also liked Minnesota, Alaska, and Washington too: lots of good people and places in this world). Rural Wisconsin is fitting like a glove. We are blessed with a nice little spot in our corner of the world. We have a fantastic community network and are starting to build some solid friendships. It's beautiful.

I don't recall if this started in Washington but I want to say it was here in Wisconsin. But I got to a place where things (the Catholic church thing) started to seem plausible. There were a list of various beliefs, doctrines, and customs that that made some sense. Maybe I didn't believe them but I saw that possibility of truth in some things. I started praying a shy prayer to God my Father. Something I was nervous to even admit it to myself at first and I certainly didn't share it with anyone else, even Doug. Lord, I see that this Catholic thing could possibly be true. If it is, I will try to follow you. I will try to be open to whatever you might have. I can't promise anything on a day to day basis but I'll try to be pliable. And I carried on with life as usual. One can't pause too long with three active kiddos at home all day.

During the "purple seasons" of Lent and Advent I usually gave God a little more space to move in my heart. Thank God for seasons, huh!? I think it was just before Advent just after we moved here I went on a walk. Oohh, exercise is the best thinking time for me! A thought popped in my head. Now if there was a book like Mere Christianity for Catholicism I just might consider reading it. I went home and told Doug "If there is a Catholic equivalent to Mere Christianity, I'll read it."  Statements such as these were unheard of spoken by me, so Doug jumped at the chance. That very day. And what do you know? He quickly found it. More Christianity by Father Dwight Longenecker. Doug ordered it off amazon and bam! it was in my hands. It was, of course, perfect for me. Dwight Longenecker is a convert himself and a CS Lewis fan. I was quite familiar with some of his background. He went to Bob Jones University, if I remember right, which is one of the ones that my Baptist upbringing supported.

I enjoyed his book. He discussed a number of common problems that Protestants have with the Catholic Church. I found them interesting and provoking. I wasn't convinced but saying to myself "Huh, well, I'll have to look into this." After I read the book I felt like I needed to go through the book page by page verifying his points on the scripture passages he referred to and also to the church fathers he quoted. I actually started but then ya know, there's this mothering and educating thing I do. I didn't have a whole lot of time.

Here's the part of the book that really stuck with me. It's in the very beginning of the book. He quotes an analogy that CS Lewis wrote about someplace.

It went something like this: Christianity is like a house. Now let's assume you believe Christianity is true and you are in this house. You have hallways and rooms that come off the hallways. Those rooms are different churches in Christianity. Now you could just wait in the hallway but really you should go into a room, right? Hallways have their purposes but really hallways are basically waiting places. One shouldn't really think of it as a place to camp out in, correct? One should eventually choose a room. It's the rooms where the fireplaces are and the couches and the meals are eaten. Where you live.  Yep, I've been camping out in the hallway for quite some time now.

Now, how does one go about deciding which room to enter? By matter of preference for the style? Oohh, I like this color and paneling. Or oohh, I like this worship band but not that kind of service. Shouldn't our choice by guided by truth instead of mere preference for style and appearance? This begs the question: do all rooms have an equal amount of truth?  If so, then by all means, our choice can most certainly be made according to style and taste. But if not, then we should be searching for the room that is "most true" right? If we find the door that is "most true," then logic says that we must enter that room (ie, join that church) even if we don't like its appearance. That could be difficult. Chances are, the room that is "most true, could be the room we find most unattractive.

Anyhow, so many more good thoughts following up that analogy from Lewis and followed up by Longenecker. Let's have coffee and talk more!!  :)  One more idea/quote that stuck with me from this book. Another quote he discussed. From F.D. Maurice: "A man is most often right in what he affirms and wrong in what he denies." 

Longenecker goes on to say "Too many of our religious positions are assumed more by what we deny rather than what we affirm. . . . A Protestant may worship in a bare preaching hall not because he likes bare rooms but because he thinks ornamentation is vain and idolatrous. Time and again our stance is determined by what we are denying rather than what we are affirming. "

"When faced with the challenge of affirming, not denying, the lifelong, conservative Evangelical may well draw back. After all, he's been trained to "be discerning." He's trained to sniff out liberalism and wrong doctrine and pin it to the ropes with a swift right hook. To go about "affirming all things" sounds a bit gooey and "liberal." It's admirable to defend the faith, but too often Protestantism  has taught us to prtest, and our whole identity is defined by our protest. Protestantism has bred in us the mentality tht immediately squints in suspicion and says, "Prove it." . . . Of course our denials are well-meant. We wish to avoid abuses and false teaching of various kinds. Unfortunately the desire to avoid an abuse has too often denied a right use."

Bam! That stuck. Thus the title "More Christianity." The idea I was left with was "What if  instead of embracing this mindset of "mere Christianity," Christianity that has been distilled down to its bare structure, only keeping the essentials, what about possibly considering the fullness, the richness God has to offer instead? What would God my Father want for me?  To settle with the skeleton structure? That's better than nothing, I suppose but I suspect like any good father, he wants the BEST for me. To enjoy the vast richness He has to offer me, His child. What if I considered more Christianity instead of mere Christianity?

To be continued . . .soon.