the small things

From as early as I can remember, I was a Christian, raised Baptist and eventually Pentecostal. My sister and I were dragged to church every Sunday until I came to know Jesus Christ for myself, then I wanted to go.

As a child I worried a lot.

Why was I worried? I had friends who were Jews, Catholics and Seventh Day Adventists. I even had a friend, my first best friend, whose family converted to Islam almost the second after his grandmother died, with whom mother had forced me to cut off all contact, when I was about 10. She was afraid his family would try to convert me as well. I remembered early on in the Pentecostal church, a woman, standing up in the testimony portion of the service, announcing that her son, who was in a gang and heavily in the drug scene (though being raised in a Christian church) “ had turned his life to God, but church, I need you to pray for him because he was now a Baptist.” There were groans of disappointment, which I thought was odd because I thought Baptists were just like us Pentecostals except not as strict. I understand from others that Baptists were going to go so hell, like everyone else who was not Pentecostal.
I was worried because, as I thought or believed Pentecostal was the correct religion, I wondered, what if we were wrong? My Catholic friends believed Catholicism was the correct religion. My Jewish friends believed the Messiah hadn’t even arrived yet, and the students at the Seventh Day Adventist school that my sister and I attended thought my family was hell-bound since we were not of their religion. What if they were right?
I was about 11 at the time. I didn’t realize that religion was basically a grouping of people who comfortable with each other, who shares certain similar views of God and the roles each of us should play or should play. I thought, “we’re (the Christians) all reading out of the same Bible. We can’t all be right? Someone has to be wrong, right?”
Why so many interpretations of the same words?
It’s like being in court. There are defenders and prosecutors, and then there’s the law. Each defense attorney and prosecuting attorney of each case interprets the same piece of law to fit their beliefs, which amazed me. It amazed me because we could read the same thing and get different views on what was read.
I decided that yes, I am and will always be a Christian, and for me my comfort level is in a Bible-based, Pentecostal-leaning church, with the loud choirs and tambourines, organs and pianos, and shouts of Amen peppered throughout the sermon and the dancing in the spirit and the speaking in tongues....and the bottom line is, what I believe is most important is how well I treat myself, how well I treat others, how well I treat the Earth, that I believe in and honor The Trinity, and that I show compassion & dignity for all.