"Stephen M.H. Lawrence" wrote:

Wow. Nice people. Honest musing he I wonder how many of them
have crappy lives, and blame God for everything? I admire anyone,
Christian or not, who has wrestled and wrangled with questions of being,
faith, the world, and the meaning of life (for lack of a less-hackneyed
phrase),
but can't bear the in-your-face stridency that I see from those who blame
Christians for everything -- Just about as much as it sickens me to see
the weak sister pseudoChristians in the world. (I'll bet money you know
a few of 'em - I certainly do).

It was the actions of a number of so called Christians that kept me
out of church for 35 years. What they did and said, and the way they
treated people made me sick. I had faith, but I couldn't share it with
them because their thoughts were on money, new cars, fancy clothes and
who had the biggest church in the county. Another church contacted me
about a new sound system, then told me I could have the job if I joined
their church. The "Pastor" claimed it was a joke but I only took the
job because I needed the money. I was in dozens of churches around my
home town doing repairs and I didn't feel anything but pushy people
making outrageous demands.

I've had a number of things happen in my life that a lot of people
don't believe. When I moved to Florida I had a choice of two vehicles.
An Olds Starfire which was so small there wasn't enough room for half of
my clothes, and a 73 Chevy stepvan that had sat in my drive for four
years. A drunk driver hit my other car and rammed it into the truck,
totaling both cars. The engine was seized, someone took the front
grill, the back bumper was missing and there was a lot of rust. I told
my friends I was going to resurrect the truck and use it. A friend used
a logging chain and his souped up four wheel drive off road truck to
pull me out of my driveway and got the truck up to 25 miles an hour. I
popped the clutch and killed his engine. He started it and pulled me
around the block to leave the truck in front of my house. He shook his
head ands said, That engine will never run without a complete overhaul.
I used Break Free penetrating oil in the cylinders, prayed about it and
a half hour later the engine turned over when I tried it. I had the
truck running for $8 and spent $52 on a used gas tank. I drove the
truck a little over 5000 miles and didn't even pull the valve cover. I
made one round trip from Ohio, and a second run to Florida in a truck
people didn't believe would make the city limits.


After a little rest to recover for all the driving I started looking
for work. I walked into the business office of a local Christian TV
station and was told they had no openings, and no budget to hire anyone
at that time but let me fill out an application for broadcast engineer.
They told me several times there was no job, but they had to take the
application and keep it on file for the FCC. I got a phone call the
next afternoon from their engineer asking me if I could stop by the
studio in Orlando to talk to him. I was to be there the next day anyway
so I set an appointment. We met and talked, and i was reminded that
there was no money, but I was told they wanted to hire another engineer
in about six months and would see if I was still looking. They called
the next morning and asked if I could start the next day, that some
money had turned up. There are a lot of other things like this that
have happened, including walking way from a totaled seven month old '83
Toyota pickup when a woman hit me head on in my lane on the highway and
the cop's amazed expression when I told him I was the driver, and Yes, I
wasn't dead.

--
Former professional electron wrangler.

Michael A. Terrell
Central Florida