Sunday Monday thoughts.

I went to church yesterday, as I do every week, and during the high school Sunday school we had a pair of missionary guest speakers. They were an older married couple who did missions work with children in the Carribbean, and frankly, they really needed to stick with the little kids. They were very sweet people, but I was irritated with the way they explained what they do. I felt my IQ drop significantly in only 45 minutes... they were talking to us like we were 1st graders. They showed us the booklets they give children, with black representing sin, red representing Jesus' blood, etc.
But through it all, I got to thinking about how interchangeable religions are. If a group of Muslim missionaries had come through, then these children would have been taught their religion, and would be Muslim. The same can be true with any religion. Don't get me wrong, Christianity is completely different from the rest, and is the only way to salvation. Salvation is a work of the Holy Spirit and God would find a way to reach these kids even without our help, but it was on my mind just the same.
Time after time, day after day, it was pounded into my brain that we are sinful, God loves us and sent His son, and our sins were demolished through His sacrifice. After about 10 years, it was meaningless to me. In a way, growing up in a Christian school was a disadvantage. I never really experienced God's direct hand in my life until I was 16, when He showed me how amazing and important He really is.
I hear stories a lot about men and women above the age of 30 becoming saved. It has to be so much more powerful then. The way I see it, people like that are similar to the man in the Bible who was blind from birth. As the story goes, he was a grown man when Jesus came by and told him to wash his eyes in a pool of water, and his eyes were opened to a world he'd never seen before. People who live their lives as non-christians are like that. Only Jesus can wash away that blindness, and open their eyes to a world they will never see in the same way again. Think how much more they can appreciate it when they've lived their whole lives without experiencing it.
I have so many friends that grew up Christian. Like me, it became meaningless, and some of them eventually fell out of it altogether. We constantly take it for granted. We are like people who have grown up seeing the world, and every day it becomes less and less exciting. It's so saddening to me to see my friends tell me they don't know what to belive anymore.
It's late though, and I have to go to bed. School is bright and early, after all. Maybe I'll have more thoughts about this tomorrow or sometime this week.
The end.