Skip to main content

TMI Thursday: in which i was born again

TMI Thursday
Now, first and foremost, let's just get one thing straight. Yes, this post is going to be rather churchy, but I'm not here to talk you into having more or less faith that you have today. This is not a sermon. There will be no altar call. There will be no cold and broken Hallelujah.

That being said, I used to be a bona fide Jesus freak.

My family started attending an Assemblies of God church when I was in middle school.

(We're talking about a tongues-speaking, slain-in-the-spirit type of place. Think: charasmatic as the Pentecostals, but with shorter hair and in pants, occasionally.)

(No snakes.) (Btw.)

So, yes. In those days, Christ (and not caffeine) was my personal savior and I was supposed to "go...into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature." Amy Grant and Michael W. Smith blasted from my boombox, and in the family car we all sang along to our local Contemporary Christian radio station, WJIE. (Where Jesus is exalted!)

I experienced a very weird intense spiritual upbringing.

When I started high school (I don't know, actually. I might have been in eight grade or something) I joined the Senior Bible Quiz team at my church. We traveled around (via church bus!) to other AG churches in Kentucky and competed against their teens academic-team style, with buzzers and the whole shee-bang.

We had study questions and practices after church on Sundays. (I had no sociallifespice.)

During a match, there were all these certain rules and regulations which were adhered to more strictly than the ten commandments.

A quizzer could call a point-of-order if there was a procedural error. There was also a "judge's ruling" that was used like a coach's challenge in football, in which a coach or quizzer could claim why their answer should be ruled correct after it had been deemed wrong. (That was my favorite part -- arguing my case like a lawyer!)

There were quotation questions (i.e. "Quotation Question, ten points. Has Jesus always been God?")

(If I buzzed in, I would have said, "John 1:1; In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and the Word was God.")

(Which doesn't even really answer the question, in my grow up opinion, but that's neither here nor there.)

Yeah, so I was really, really into that quiz team. And, I kind of rocked at it. Memorization has always been one of my strengths.

I was, in fact, the number one quizzer in the entire state. And I won that title by a mother fuc mile.

But, because I knew -- even then -- that it was super lamespice, I never got to brag about it to my friends.

Until now.

Don't mess with me biblically -- I will school you in some Jesus trivia.

Visit Lilu's blog (she's doing Post Secret again!) for more tragic tales.

Comments

carissajaded said…
Now this is just made of awesome. Math geeks. cool. Band nerds. Yes. But Jesus quiz team!!! Just amazing. But seriously though, I've never been too religous... but I have taken my share of philosophy religion classes and could "perhaps" battle it out a bit with you. Or at least lose with grace!
Tina Lynn said…
"Jesus Freak." LOL. I was one, too, once upon a time. Don't worry. I won't challenge you biblically. It sounds VeryScarySpice.
Jm Diaz said…
OYG! (oh, your God).

That. was. great.

If I'm reading something, and I find myself tilting my head, in the same way my dog did when I tried to talk to her, then I know it was a good post.

I was never a Jesus freak. I was confined to 5 years of catholic school (three in military and the rest were random here and there's).

:)
jayme said…
i wish i knew this a year ago. we'd have a totally different friendshipspice. wowzers.
P said…
My goodness! (I was going to say "My God" but didn't want to blaspheme. Oh crap, I just did. Sorry.)

I got good memorization skills too.

Not about Jesus though...

(I'm going to hell)

Popular posts from this blog

in which i have a birthday and a giveaway

The blogger as a child. p.s. it's my birthday. And people at Starbucks like me. (I did get this for free, but it was not for the benefit of my blog.)  (Obvi, it was a gift .) There's a cupcake in that box! There's a hazelnut latte in that cup! In other news, I'm having a 100 Followers/ It's my birthday giveaway. You should enter. I'm giving away the following goodies: 1. A $25.00 VISA giftcard. 2. An original poem, which will be hadwritten and autographed on pretty paper. It might be about love, about being a writer, or maybe the winner will be able to choose the topic. We shall see. This giveaway is a bit seatofthepantsspice. 3. A frame from my wedding day. In fact, this very frame: 4. A mystery. The fourth goodie will be a surprise until you open the package! 5. The whopper: I will dedicate a karaoke song to you, personally, and put it on my blog, vlogger style. If you want to enter this smashing contest: leave a comment. 1 entry if you follow and comme...

possessive

I watched Hoarders last night. During the first commercial break, I dared to look around my living room and I thought, oh holy mother of four-letter-word. Color me cluttered. Yes, it's true that most of my mess is hidden and collecting dust in the dark, but I know what's there -- like the 100+ VHS tapes in my bookshelf/ media cabinet, for instance. Yes, I love knowing that should I desire to watch my old school copy of Riding in Cars with Boys or Girls Just Wanna Have Fun or The Royal Tenembaums or Serendipity or Ghost World or Memento or... okay. You get the picture. It's there. If I wanted it, it would be right there. Also semi-hidden? Probaby 50+ copies of this weekly magazine from the late 1960's - early 1970's called Story of Life. My grandma gave them to me. Have I cracked the cover of even one issue? Hell to the no. I don't have time for that type of nostalgia. Plus, I can't even find a link for it with a quick google search. Something tha...

First Page Blogfester

Preface: TGIF. It has been a day. So. I'm participating in the First Page Blogfest in which writers around the blogosphere post the opening 24 lines of their WIP. (In a "real" book, this is the approximate amount of work that would appear on page 1!) This blogfest is being headed up by Kelly over at Kelly's Compositions . Please check out the other entries and leave them a comment on their work. My own WIP will be featured on Roni's Beta Club next week, and I chose an excerpt from the beginning one chapter one for critque over there, so today I'll give you the true beginning: the opening lines of my prologue. Here goes nothing. My working title is A SAD SONG IN A FLAT KEY Genre: Literary Fictionspice Prologue May 2005      Laurel sits Indian style. She faces the head of her bed and tries to focus on Cafe Terrace at Night, pretending it is priceless artwork instead of a cheap replica. She counts the tables first, and the...