"Oh, You're a Christian?"

I follow this blog called "Stuff Christians Like". The writer's name is Jon Acuff. His postings are a good mixture of funny things and serious things. This is what he posted today. And I just had to share it. Made me think.

 

A few months ago, I had a conversation with a woman on a plane.

Thirty minutes into our talk, I mentioned something about faith.

Taken aback, she said, “Oh, you’re a Christian?”

I said, “Yes, why?”

Her response surprised me.

She said, “You don’t seem judgmental enough to be a Christian.”

My hope is that our generation will be the one that rewires that.

My hope is that our generation will be the one that encourages people who don’t know Jesus to say,

“Oh, you’re a Christian?”

“That makes sense. You seemed really gracious.”

“You seemed like you understood how much you’ve been forgiven.”

“You seemed like you know what it means to be given a second and a third and a thousandth chance.”

Someday on a plane, I hope that’s what I hear about our faith. 

 

 

What do you think?

 

www.jonacuff.com/stuffchristianslike/

#17: I Wish I Was Great At...

#17: What is the thing you most wish you were great at?

There definitely are many things I wish I were great at. In fact, I can't even narrow it down to one. So here's a few...

1) I wish I was great at communicating with people. I have a stutter. I get nervous. And I hate confrontation. (Even with people I feel comfortable around... it's a problem.)

2) I wish I didn't have stage fright. Because if I didn't have stage fright, I would love to act in plays. It's a weird kind of dream, that I don't share with many people. I've almost convinced myself to take a minor in Theatre in university. (Like that's ever going to happen...)

3) I wish I was great at painting. I can paint a room, I can paint a fence, and I can stain furniture... but I can't artistically paint something. Believe me, I've tried. I can't even do abstract art. That's how much I suck. The best I can do is a Jackson Pollock type painting... but who can't do that??

There it is... things I wish I was great at.

#16: Greatest Accomplishments

#16: What are your 5 greatest accomplishments?

Golly, what have I accomplished in my life at all? Well, let's see... Honestly, as I'm typing this right now, I don't even have 5 in mind yet.

1) Graduating from high school
- Yes! I think this is an accomplishment. I know some people that haven't been able to accomplish this, therefore this is an accomplishment for me. I even managed to graduate with a laureate, a merit, and an honours in biology. (Which surprised me a little.)

2) Getting good grades throughout my life
- Now, I'm not gonna lie, I'm definitely not a straight-A student. But I always got a few A's, a lot of B's, and a few unfortunate D's. I think those are pretty good grades. (Let's see what university does to this track record...)

3) Saving up enough money to go on a school trip to Europe
- This was quite something. It wasn't that I actually saved it up, but I made monthly payments, which is still really hard to do when you only work part time and you're in high school. It was the best trip ever, made lots of close friends, and it was the funnest week and a half of my life.

4) Being a camp counselor
- Whew! Is this ever an accomplishment! Last summer I was a camp counselor at Cedarwood and it was, hands down, the best summer I've had in my life. It was challenging and incredibly stretching. I got to share Jesus with teens who didn't really know much about Him at all. It brought me out of my comfort zone more than I've ever been. I also got to do worship sometimes in the evenings, which also brought me out of my comfort zone a lot, but I very much enjoyed doing it.

5) Getting baptized
- Okay... this actually hasn't happened yet, but it will be happening in 3 days! I've wanted to get baptized since I was in grade 7. But being an immature Christian, I didn't really understand what baptism was or why a person gets baptized. Until after Capernwray actually, I thought that you had to have all your crap together in order to get baptized. But I realized that if I waited for myself to have all my crap together before getting baptized, I would never get baptized.

So there. I came up with that all on the spot! That's an accomplishment in and of itself!

#15: If I Were An Animal

#15: If you were an animal, what would you be and why?

I really, truly despise this question. Mainly because I think it's stupid. Like why would I want to be an animal? Am I allowed to say 'human' or is that Christian-ly incorrect because we don't believe that humans are animals? I've thought about this question a bit in the last few days, trying to think of any animal that I would feel comfortable putting down here, but I just couldn't. So I'll share a story little totally-related blurb...

One of my co-workers at Smitty's asked this question to our boss once. His response was this (and I'm not lying): "I'd be a cow in India. 'Cause I'd be the safest son of a censored in town." A little bit racist (or religion-ist?), but still a little funny. You have to chuckle just a bit.

And that's that.

What's New

Life has changed, once again. I feel like this happened a lot. I don't really mind it all that much, change is good. I finally get to attend my home church regularly again, which hasn't happened in about two years. I'm getting baptized actually. Finally, right?

I'm once again living in my parent's basement. (Although, it's only temporary. I'm moving to Winnipeg in less than three months time.) I got a job. I work at a place called Lilac Resort. It's like a waterpark/campground type thing. Anyway, I work in the concession stand. I take people's orders and make milkshakes and stuff like that. It's actually quite different than what I'm used to in a job. I'm still trying to get the hang of it and honestly, I don't think I'm doing a very good job at it. But thankfully, it's only a job for the summer.

I haven't been doing much in my spare time lately. Yesterday I went to Winnipeg to go shopping and see a movie. I'm not like other girls. When I go shopping, I don't come home with clothes most of the time. I come home with books, and sometimes movies. My favourite store to shop at is Chapters, so that tells you a little bit more about me. The movie I saw was Mud. It wasn't a great movie. It was good, but it's not anything that I would tell my friends and family about. But I now have enough Scene points for a free movie, so that's awesome.

Here's some movies I'm looking forward to seeing this year: The Great Gatsby (no, I haven't seen it yet. I wanted to read the book first, that's just who I am.), Man of Steel, Monster University, Despicable Me 2, Catching Fire (if I ever get another to actually reading the books and seeing the first movie), and, of course, The Hobbit: Desolation of Smaug! Honestly, the one I'm probably looking forward to the most is the second part of the Hobbit. It's just who I am. I love Tolkien. And Peter Jackson. They are both brilliant.

I'm in the process of reading the Fellowship of the Ring again. (I wanted to re-read the series.) I also just started the Great Gatsby today. I bought it yesterday when I went to the city. It's pretty good so far. I'm not a huge fan of what they call "classics", but everyone apparently needs to read them in their lifetime. So I am. (I'm a fantasy fiction and thriller mystery kind of girl.)

This was a really useless and meaningless post, kind of. But I just felt like I needed to write something today. Probably out of boredom.