Pool table conversations…almost always the best kind.

I had an interesting conversation with one of the Music Night guys at The Edge last night. I really love Music Night right now because it is a fairly small group of guys and we all know each other pretty well so there is a very relaxed feel to these Wednesday nights.

Anyway, I’m not sure how the conversation started but somehow we got onto the topic of whether I was a protestant or a catholic. I was trying to explain to Him that I didn’t consider myself either but that I really liked this guy Jesus and I was trying to follow Him.

He sort of got this but then was convinced that if I wasn’t a protestant or a catholic than I must be an atheist. To this I had to say that in fact I very much believed in God and that Jesus was in fact His son but I just didn’t like what we have done with all these loaded labels for his supposed followers. He sort of got this but then proceeded to tell me that he considered me a protestant. I said that I guess I would have to live with that, unfortunately.

We went on from this to talk about how he thought that Protestants don’t believe in Mary, or the virgin birth or Jesus 40 days in the wilderness or any of that stuff. I was amazed by this perception and asked him what he thought Protestants did believe? He didn’t really know, which is understandable. This got me thinking that people really are willing to believe almost anything they here from “their own kind” about other groups of people and just go through life blindly instead of looking into things themselves.

From this however, the conversation turned a corner as we talked about what prods and catholics do have in common. Like that fact that we believe in a God that loves us, that we are far from perfect and that because of this Jesus died to give us real life and to “save us.”

I’m sure though, that after that game of pool there are probably more questions in his head than answers, which is maybe not such a bad thing. We will see next week. I’m looking forward to it, and to strumming out a few chords on my guitar.

I learned how to play stairway to heaven last week. Nice one!