Back Home (and other random thoughts)

Well, I'm back in Memphis, Tennessee and in one piece (for those of you out there who are reading and actually care). Minor details are that the flight had turbulence coming out of Jacksonville but got better approaching Memphis, and it is beautiful here today. It always seems like we pick up where we left off, and I was never gone. Heck, I WISH I had never been gone, but we won't go there cause we've already been in previous blog posts. It's a quality of friendship thing; something I find lacking in any "relationships" I have in Jacksonville, which are slim to none.

We've had the discussion, in some depth, about our experiences in church as we grew up (since we both went to the same place a number of years). This discussion really got down to the heart of why our friendship is what it is; both of us it seems were looking for someone GENUINE and we found it in each other over those years. And, while I go to church weekly, I think it is absolutely horrifying as a Christian that, in a church setting, finding someone genuine is so difficult. I mean, isn't that what it's all about? Help me out folks, because if it isn't, I somehow missed the boat. How can people be so screwed up to think that being a Christian means fire insurance, and nothing more? How can they not see how they turn people off when they preach and preach and preach but then go from what they preach and live shallow and hypocritical and judgemental lives?

Dear Lord, I hope this isn't the case with myself. And, as I commented, I think this shallowness is the reason I had more non-Christian friends in school than Christian ones. I mean, these folks were REAL, and some of the supposed Christians in my highschool really were anything BUT real. Am I concerned about those non-Christian friends souls though? Heck yes. Do I let them know where I stand? I think so. But do I feel the need to ram it downt their throats? I sure hope that's not what I do. I mean, there's a difference between taking a stand on what you believe and totally alienating a person based on the fact that they don't believe it too.

As I said, if being a friend first and foremost as a Christian isn't number one priority, then I missed the boat folks....but I somehow think I'm right on target. And now that I have used this entire blog as a random, free-flow sounding board, I hope you've gotten something out of it.