Tuesday, November 11, 2008

"lol theology for 1000$"



















This was the title of the email I received last night from my brother. My brother, who despite his age is probably one of the funniest people I know, wrote a fictional religious tale and submitted it to his teacher. His teacher then loved the story so much, she had him submitted into a contest for $1,000 for the most inspirtaional religious experiences. The first story, is the tale up for consideration:

I believe I have been a witness to Christ many times in my life. I believe the act of witnessing Christ is important in itself, but you must also learn from it. I believe that good Christians will have the honor of witnessing Christ often in their lives, but must keep an open mind. Being a Catholic I believe that most near death experiences, miracles, and experiences of being saved all related to God or Christ.

      My first experience where I believe I have had an encounter with Christ is when I was upstate visiting family, and a bear suddenly came out of the woods while I was walking the dog down the road. The bear growled and waved its paw furiously, causing my aunt’s dog to bark and chase after the bear, as I held her back with her leash. The bear seemed infuriated and walked towards me and the dog when suddenly there was a loud crash in a nearby brook which sounded like rocks falling. The bear got scared and ran back into the woods. I went to check what the sound was but there was nothing there, or at least nothing out of the ordinary.

      My second experience where I believe I had an encounter with Christ or became a witness of him is when my dad had a heart attack. This caused him many health problems such as eating problems. I prayed and I prayed for him to get well, but the doctors said that even after all the treatments there was a high chance for further complication. I believed that there was hope and I continued to pray and went to church to pray. After all of his operations he began his recovery very weak, but over time he gained strength and made a full recovery, despite what the doctors told us. I believe that Christ helped me through these hard times and helped my dad.

      My third experience that I believe I have had an encounter with Christ is when my friends and I were waiting for the bus in the city.   We saw a homeless man lying on the ground with very little clothes in the cold. He asked for money for clothes but everyone that walked by either ignored him or said no. I saw this happen for ten minutes and I could tell the man was really suffering and cold so I decided to give the man enough money to buy a coat from a small nearby store. I gave him about twenty dollars and when I got on the bus I had second thoughts about what I did but moved on. Later that day when we were on our way home, I found a hundred dollars lying on the ground. I believe that Jesus gave me this because of my kindness towards the homeless man, even when I did not have a lot of money to begin with.

      Many people take these experiences and chalk them up to luck. At the time of Christ everything was much simpler and there was no mass media or television. Now there are many people who try to bash or make fake examples of God’s presence just to get a laugh. We believe only in miracles that are pre approved by the church, and this I find to be sad.