My Friend Katherine

This is my friend Katherine. She tells me I'm funny. Here she is fashioning a little man from a Starbucks napkin to illustrate scripture -- so I ask you, who's the funny one, really?

She and I met in September of '05 when we both arrived to audition and sing with an early music choir. There were only 3 of us "newbies" that night, so afterward, we kind of clung amidst all the other veterans. As we three talked, we found that we were all mothers of young children, but the common elements continued past that for Katherine and me: we are both homeschoolers, both have 3 daughters, both had just endured a similar life-trial, and both walk with Jesus by the same doctrinal position. Later, during our first playdate to introduce the girls, Katherine would recognize my Fifi from a violin recital the year before -- yes, her daughter and mine take lessons from the same teacher! I think we were just meant to be friends, and in the case of the choir -- comrades.

To my delight this morning, she was able to meet me for some fellowship time at Starbucks. Two hours, a couple of yummy bagels, a shot of caffeine in our separate and prefered delivery systems, and talk of our Lord brought out some questions and excellent observations. Not all the opinions suggested here are hers -- only the good ones.

I was asking questions about Christ the man, and am thankful for yet another Sister-in-Christ who can let me think aloud that way without judgment. Katherine is a lover of Jesus and student of His Word, so I knew that my questions would not sway her or cause her confusion. In the end, she exhorted me to re-read Revelation. (So that's what's in my laundry room player now. I'm probably going to have to sit down and follow along with a text for this one though!)

We also talked about how hard it is to be a Christian in America. Not hard like hide-your-bible, meet-in-a-tunnel, deny-or-die hard, but hard to walk closely with the Lord because of our lifestyle of excess. It's so often our need that brings us to the throne, right? It's quite a discipline to be a prayerful, reliant Christian when we have most everything we need.

What if the Church in America is likened to the Laodicean church admonished in Revelation? What if we've got our ministerial priorities all messed up? What if we have fallen victim to the root of all evil and are simply too blind to see it or proud to believe it?

And what if we are misled by our own works-based tendancies? All our fine efforts to serve God seem somehow more grand and meaningful to us if they're accomplished outside the realm of influence in which He has already sovereignly placed us. Mothers abandon their own children to take up ministry somewhere else, and tragically to me, Christians in America don't tell their own neighbors about the Lord Jesus, but will spend a good chunk of change to send their teen to Europe to accomplish the same charge.

Yeah, that was my morning; chewed on it all day long. I like Katherine. She sharpens me. She ought to have a blog.