Can I get a witness? (I dare you)

It's 6.45am where I live.

I'm grumpy.

I have a Huey Lewis and the News song running through my head. But that's not what's making me grumpy.

About 90% of the links on my favorites list (I'm too lazy to get an aggregator) identify as one flavor of Christianity or another. And last night, as I was flipping through them, they fell into two broad categories.

1) Dear sweet Jesus, it sucks to be a Christian.
2) Dear sweet Jesus, it sucks we have people like Them saying they're Christians.

With a witness like this, no wonder my state's got 87% of the population not attending church. No wonder why, when I invited an acquaintance to Ash Wednesday services she declined, because she was starting a three-week 'cleansing fast' to 'clear [her] body and mind'.

Nah. We can't tell people about the joys of taking up the light yoke, the easy burden, and toddling off towards Calvary behind Jesus, called the Christ. Instead, we've got to snipe at each other, saying that conservatives are just wrong and unneccesary (and probably racist to boot!), but not giving a better way. Saying liberals, for all their talk of inclusion, are really exclusionary and reactionary (and probably Pagans to boot!), and then not giving an alterantive. We're so busy on the Internet pointing out each other's failings (and how in the world can we see each other's failings through that big ol' plank of wood in our eyes, I'm wondering).

When we get sniped at, oh, boy, look out! We get our righteous indignation all up in the house. We are pained, brothers and sisters! We have been hurt! We have been martyred on the Internet! We sit back and fan ourselves with our hands and say, "We're suffering for Jesus!"

Bullshit.

That's right, I called 'bullshit'. To the whole confounded mess. If you've got Internet access and time to waste strolling around the Internet, you probably also have food, and shelter, and a warm bed, and heat, and clothing. You're not in jail. You're not afraid your words are going to throw you in jail. You're not afraid of people breaking down your door and dragging you off just because you confess Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior. I have known martyrs. You, my dear brother or sister blogger, are not a martyr.

I dare you, my dear brothers and sisters.
I not only dare you, I triple-dog dare you.
If you have a blog, today you've got a writing assignment.
Today, you're going to post your witness. And you're going to leave all the pointing fingers at people what done you wrong out of it.
And for your convenience, we've got questions for you to answer!

1) When was the last time you felt the Holy Spirit move?
Vestry retreat last weekend. The HS was definately there, the whole time (and it was wierd being in the middle of a group of people who not only talked about the HS moving, but took it for granted), but during Morning Prayer on Saturday it was almost physical, like if I turned my head and reached out my hand, I could see and touch it.

2) Did you have a single conversion experience that you can identify?
Yes. Church camp. I was a miserable preteen, and to boot, my best friend at camp had been kicked out the night before for fighting (he'd stood up to a kid who was picking on me). We were listening to one of the counselors give her experiences as a recovering alcoholic. I don't remember much of the talk, I was wrapped up in my own little haze of misery, and contemplating how this suicide attempt was going to be the one that worked (just for the record, I wasn't Goth, I got good grades, and I was very, very good at hiding things from people). Well, the speaker kept repeating the phrase, "just give everything over to Jesus." And that was the only thing that broke through my little haze. Finally, in my head, I told Jesus, "You want it? FINE! Take it!" And Jesus said, "Okay." Since then, I've had ups and downs and such, but I've never utterly given up faith in God and Jesus Christ. I just flat-out can't.

3) What was the last miracle you saw/experienced?
Waking up this morning. Before that, every baby and child walking around. Nothing more implausible and impossible than a baby. If you want big, flashy miracles, well, I saw an icon that had restored itself a couple weeks back.

4) You are going to be broadcast via multimedia to everyone in the world. You have twenty-five words or less to explain why Christianity is the greatest thing that's ever happened to you. Ready, set, go!
Being the sister of Jesus Christ, being the daughter of God, there is nothing greater to prove we are not nations and factions, but family. (25 exact. Booyah!)