Notes from the pre-Christian life

A few things stood out as we had our little heathen focus group downstairs:

• The fact that, for every single one of us, there was at least one specific person who led us to faith. We all could name Christians who either served as good examples or who specifically told us about the gospel. This is certainly worth remembering the next time you have scruples about sharing your faith. Yes I just referenced an 80s board game (that's apparently still being produced)

• We all talked about how intimidating church was those first few times. No idea what to do during Communion (a couple of us mentioned specifically trying to avoid church on Communion days), couldn't figure out how everyone else knew what songs were being sung, hating when the pastor would make you shake the hands of strangers near you and a general feeling of being unwelcome (if that's a word). Kind of important for us to note.

• I asked the question about whether any of us would rather have had a Christian upbringing than the one we had. The overwhelming response was something along the lines of this: No one regretted how we grew up, per se, but at this point in our Christian lives we all feel somewhat "behind." We don't have Bible stories and verses ingrained in our minds. Some of us haven't even finished the New Testament let alone the entire Bible. Maybe it's flawed logic to assume we'd have greater Biblical knowledge had we grown up Christian, but...it seems like we would have. I think we'd all like to get to the point where we can recite Biblical passages, know who famous people in the Bible are and so on. I wish this all worked like The Matrix, where that knowledge could simply be planted in our heads the way Neo was programmed to know kung-fu. Sigh. I guess we'll just have to settle for the all-seeing, all-knowing Creator of the universe.