The “Letters from Roscoe” is a series of short letters describing the way one person became a ‘real’ follower of Christ and a Christian in Training. Please feel free to join in by filling out the comments form at the end of this post.
My name is Roscoe, and I am a Christian in Training.
I haven’t always been that. In fact, I accepted Jesus Christ into my heart and was baptized when I was a kid in 1966. Then I grew up. I joined the military. I served my country and I made a career. I did all the things you normally do in life. These travels took me far, far away from the Christian life for a very long time. Recently though, my orbit has brought me back full circle so to speak.
I started coming to church again.
Would you believe that I was almost 60 years old before I went to Church of my own volition? All the times before were with my mom and sisters as a child, or with my wife and my children as an adult. But I never went alone. I never decided or just ‘wanted’ to attend Church. Religion has always been in my life, but I can’t say that I was a religious man. I smoked, I drank, I cussed a fair amount (but never at my wife or children) and I just did a whole lot of things that I probably shouldn’t have. All of that has changed now. But, it didn’t happen overnight, it has taken time … and a lot of soul searching.
Like I said, I started coming to Church again, and I found a nice Church, not too big, not to small. Like Goldilocks would say; “This one is just right.”
To say I was a skeptic would be an understatement. I would attend the services and in my mind I would ridicule the ceremonies and note how well the ministers could come up with a rationalization for everything that happens in life. Sayings like; ‘It’s God’s will.’ or ‘I was sick with cancer, but I got healed!’ This following a successful surgery by Doctors that removed a tumor. I scoffed at the personal testimonies of people as they stood up and testified for Christ before their peers. One of my favorites was “God answers your prayers, but it may not be the answer you were hoping for.” Now is that a way to cover both sides of the bet or what? I just couldn’t believe this stuff. This was the age of Science how could people believe in this?
When it was time to sing a hymn of praise and worship; I would stand there silently while I literally screamed inside my head about what kind of a God would need to be ‘worshiped’ and why would an entity so powerful need to be praised and glorified by something so insignificant as us … peons?
The rage I felt was incredible. But I continued to come to church.
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