Something that must be said

I openned my inbox today to find this message:

"...i was by no means trying to offended, nor tease, but after i re-read it, i come off as an ass, so i wanted to send you an apology...i have recently began to entertain the idea of accepting christ(which is a huge step for me)...because quite honest, it is a scary thing for me to submit to christ, and well it came out as me being an ass, so i am not offering an excuse but an explanation, so i am sorry."

And here's my reply:

There's no need to apologize. Truthfully. I must admit that I wasn't exactly sure how to take your comment, but I wasn't offended or angry. I didn't have a way to reply to your e-mail last time, which is mainly the reason that I didn't.

I think you've hit on something fundamental about the Christian conversion experience: If you know what you're doing (are old/mature enough to realize what a spiritual commitment means) it's a damn scary thing. Submission to Jesus is a life-altering decision. I'm not going to bull shit you on that one.

BUT (and here's the kicker), the refining of ore is also a life-altering process. Ore is full of impurities, dirt, useless bits, garbage, and refining, processing, cleaning that ore changes it into something fundamentally different, yet fundamentally more pure and perfect. Something that maintains it's "iron-ness, gold-ness, or silver-ness" but is a better version of the forenamed. Submission to Jesus is a similar process, one that makes you better than you could ever be on your own but never are you less than 'you'.

Let's continue this conversation.
Ian

Our Going-Away gifts to each other: I bought Mary and Melissa silver rings, ech with Celtic designs on them. They went together and got me one, too.

It's a motion simulator ride of six coasters from Cedar Point. It includes the Mantis, Gemini, Magnum, Mean Streak, Iron Dragon, and Blue Streak.

I went into the arcade the other day to destroy some zombies and they had this "Experience of a Lifetime"...