“If I don’t make it to heaven, I’ll worship You from hell!”

“ZEAL”

This is my first blog. I’m hoping to communicate with my readers and potential readers of my book, Chasing Jesus.

I’m inviting, not debate, but mutually respectful dialogue with you regarding what I consider fascinating, thought-provoking questions and ideas surrounding our mutual journey. Some may be actually vital.

Despite what some seem to claim, no one has all the answers to this singular spiritual odyssey on which you and I have embarked…I certainly don’t.

A quote from Chasing Jesus: “Only someone with a room-temperature IQ thinks everyone can be pleased. I think if the Lord, Himself, came walking across Lake Michigan somebody’d complain He didn’t have a permit. And here I am, just a poor old duffer wallowing in the shallows”…

What I can lay claim to is over three-quarter’s century of wrestling with the various and often confusing aspects of the Christian dynamic…the “rubber-meets-the-road”, if you will, of our Faith. I’ve found things that’ve bolstered my faith, helped me immeasurably, and may well help you.

…and, of course, I may well learn from you in our discourse. This is what true communication is all about.

So that’s the spirit in which this blog is launched, and I hereby “open our proceedings” with some questions for you:

When you saw my “banner statement/battle cry” above, what was your reaction?

Were you sort of shocked that a believing Christian would talk about going to hell? (Some might be offended by a “saved” Christian talking about going to hell. “Sealed for all time” upon conversion versus, “Work out your salvation with fear and trembling”…we can discuss that in the next blog, but “just for giggles” here, what do you think?).

Maybe you thought it was something just meant to catch the eye and sell a book.

OR… Did something about it strike a chord—did you get the sense of someone in the grip of fierce and fervent devotion?

If you picked the last option, you’ve captured my mindset at that moment.

In the tiniest, most microcosmic way, I was, in that instance of spontaneous outpouring, in the best of company…Mother Teresa, soldiering on in her “dark night of the soul”, thinking God had abandoned her…Our Lord Himself, in His humanity, asking God why He had forsaken Him, yet never wavering in his mission to save us all.

So, let’s discuss.

Here are a couple of things:

How important is it to try to maintain the zeal from that initial acceptance of Salvation…maintain it in the day-to-day ongoing of your life as a Christian? (With me, it’s vital--there is so much repetition in church services, prayer, etc., I need to keep it all as alive and yes, occasionally “emotional” as I can. I want my prayers to be the antithesis, the polar opposite of the uninspired, the perfunctory).

I belong to a church that has a personal prayer book with a great deal of repetition in its prayers, etc., but also, this advice was given by my priest: “Pray as you can, not as you think you have to”. About the best advice I ever got, I think…

What fuels your Christian journey, keeps it alive and vibrant…are you satisfied with your journey’s progress?

I guess that’s enough for now.

See you in “comments” and/or the next blog, “One-time and for all time saved”, or, “Faith without works is dead”. jp