Unity starts in the marriage setting

I feel so fortunate that God has called Wayne and I to unity with the WHOLE body of believers.... and it has been so interesting to see how we work it out "amongst ourselves."

For instance, the minute he gave me the green light I pulled out my trusty old Catholic Bible, the one I had been reading long ago when Jehova's Witnesses had begun to ask me if I knew God had a name! (hee hee.)

The NAB is one of my favorite translations, but I had always felt guilty reading it. Years ago, I had had my own "bonfire of the vanities" in which I had trashed dozens and dozens of Catholic books and items, believing wholeheartedly that maybe having those in my house were one of the reasons I felt such a pull to the Catholic church. At the time, I got rid of almost everything except a) a Sunday missal that my brother had carried with him and read throughout his tour in Afghanistan. b) a black rosary, and c) a St Barbara medal.

Various reasons: the Bible had been a gift for my confirmation and meant a lot to me because it had been the first bible I ever really read that drew me into a study of the Word of God . The missal had been sustaining my brother's faith in Christ through the tragedy of war and through a frightening hospitalization because of that war. The Rosary had been the first "religious" purchase I had ever made, bought in a time when I could feel God's call on me but wasn't sure what to do with it. And the medal was given to me as I went through confirmation, to remind me that I had of my own decision decided to follow God in the way the woman on the medal had-- radical devotion was due my Jesus.

I never gave these items a second thought until last month when I longed to once again pray the rosary, and fished it out to show Wayne. Once in a while, over the years, I would pull out the missal, either to remind me of my brother's love for Jesus as I interceded for him, or to scour its pages looking for "unbiblical" stuff I could hold against the RCC, looking for a reason not to go back.

When Wayne gave me the go-ahead, the first thing I did was pull out my Bible. And for Lent, I've been alternating using that one and my KJV, sometimes both at the same time. It sits next to my bed, and the other day Wayne opened it and found a card in the cover that has a painting of St Barbara on it. He freaked out and asked me why I hadn't gotten rid of it. I reflected on why I couldn't part with it---

My grandmother had given it to me at my first communion. St Barbara had been so devoted to Jesus that even when her father ordered her to renounce Christianity, she had refused, to the point of being burned alive by him! My grandmother had told me that she prayed that when I had to choose between life and God, I would always choose God. Did I think the card had some magical power that would protect me? Not a chance, but I did believe that looking at it reminded me to meditate on what the life of a woman devoted to Christ might look like.

That's the thing--- it got us talking and thinking about "Christian superstition," and how easy it is to fall into that trap. His concern, obviously, is that i thought owning that particular item would somehow "protect" me from evil or keep on the straight and narrow. THat's what he assumed when he saw that card in my bible.

In the past four months, I have had nondenominational people in all seriousness tell me to "write scripture on wooden posts and plant them at the four corners of my house, thus "staking" my house out on the Word of God, to write scripture on my mirror that reminds me of who I am so that I don't "forget," to speak the name of Jesus audibly into each room of my house whenever my kid starts acting rebellious, and I recently had someone suggest that every time I uttered the word "sick," I was bringing sickness onto my family. (as in, saying "I think I might be getting sick.")

Superstitious? totally. The Word of God makes certain ASPECTS of those things clear-- we should know scripture, we should speak it into our lives, we should call on the name of Jesus when in need, we should maintain "pure" words, etc. But there are very few "ritual" things that may aid us in that-- annointing people with oil is biblical. Laying on hands. And the Bible even tells us that handkerchiefs which belonged to the apostles had "healing powers." So there's a fine line between these things and superstition... and it's one that Catholics tend to err on one side of, and protestants on the total other side. As usual, the middle path is always best. Our eyes should be fixed firmly on God, believing that God alone is our deliverer, and that through Him alone are some of these things possible.

But we should not neglect to use the things which God has given us for our protection, either. I have a friend whose mom knew that a scarf which had been given her as a gift had to go because it was causing her to act strangely. Turns out the scarf had been taken off a dead indigent in wartime by an american soldier in her family, and then given to her as a gift. These things DO happen-- but we must be VERY careful to, as the Word says, test the spirits. and there comes a point when we need to recognize that our "strength is in the LOrd and none other."

Anyways, walking through these things with my husband over the last few months has been so great, because though it can frustrate us, we are both being purified and learning to let go of some deep rooted misconceptions we have about Kingdom things.

We are like our own little Ireland over here-- small miracles happening thanks to the message of the gospel, but also the ominous threat of war because of cultural misconceptions. We are treading carefully, we are seeking ways to unite. We are learning, every day, that division of the Body Of Christ is of the devil, and that the one who rejoices in it is in sin.

I've rediscovered the Taize community--- once again, a place I once had the honor of pilgrimaging to, but at the time it meant nothing to me. It's a small community in France where unity is the ONLY important thing.... protestants and Catholics hold services together, pray TOGETHER, and learn as they live in this community how to BE THE BODY OF CHRIST. It's a beautiful thing.