"Coming out" as a conservative Christian
Topic: My Story -April 2020
I remember asking God, “How am I supposed to show the world who I’ve become since I decided to follow You? It’s been 17 years. Where do I start?”
Since we were prohibited from leaving the house and interacting with any other life forms due to COVID, social media was my only option, and the only social media platform I was active on at the time was Facebook, which I now affectionately call Facsistbook. Remember the days before Facebook silenced us by putting us in jail for not complying with their “community standards” or slapping a “fact checker” label on our otherwise completely accurate posts? Yeah, me neither…seems like forever ago.
I’ve always been a “see the glass half full” kind of girl rather than “see the glass half empty”, so despite the massive fear campaign launched by the media, I was still optimistic when it came to COVID. After running the numbers that were coming out from the CDC, even the worst case scenario showed a 95% survival rate, and that’s being conservative. I couldn’t figure out why people were so panicked.
YOU HAVE A 95% CHANCE OF SURVIVING!!
HELLO??
In the fall of 2006 when my dad was given the devastating news that he had stage 4 colorectal cancer, he only had a 30% chance of surviving for more than 5 years, and we didn’t panic over that. Think about those odds for a second. The doctors were basically telling us that there was a 70% chance that my dad was not going to be with us anymore in five years. And guess what? They were right. He wasn’t.
Of course that was debilitating news to get, and we weren’t excited about it, but we dealt with it better than most of the world was dealing with the COVID mess. Panicking, shutting down schools, closing businesses, being forced to cover your face with a diaper, when the chance of you dying is less than 5% didn’t make any sense to me.
Nevertheless, I attribute most of my positive mental attitude to my business mentors who taught me how to see the silver lining in every situation, no matter how bad the circumstances looked. During my first year as an entrepreneur, one of my colleagues gave me a book to read called Think and Grow Rich by Napoleon Hill, and I learned that all success, no matter what arena it’s in, is based on failure. There’s an entire chapter devoted to this very idea:
“Every adversity, every failure, and every heartache carries with it the seed of an equivalent or a greater benefit to those who have a positive mental attitude.
Read it again…
Now what does it mean?
It means that if you’ll train your mind to see the silver lining in every cloud, even when life gives you lemons, you’ll be able to make lemonade, no matter what you’re facing.
That’s the lens I view life through, and I wanted to help encourage people at a time when we all desperately needed encouragment, so to combat the media’s fear mongering narrative I was posting positive, uplifting memes and articles.
Look at what I posted on April 6, 2020:
Here’s a link to John Bevere’s quick word to go along with the post:
John Bevere - 2 Timothy 1:7
This didn’t exactly sit well with some of my more liberal family and friends who thought I wasn’t taking COVID seriously. Mind you they’re “Christians”, but they chose to see the situation from a different lens. I would argue that they chose to live in fear while I chose to walk by faith.
Getting back to my “coming out”…
The majority of my acquaintences on social media had no idea who I really was, although they probably thought they did. Prior to March of 2020, I was relatively private about my life. I posted pictures of my kids here and there and an inspiring story or thought once in a while. But just like most people, I used social media as a time filler…a way to keep up with what was going on while pretending I really didn’t care. I never saw myself becoming an “influencer” if you will, and certainly not in the realm of politics…looks like God had other plans for me.
I decided the easiest and most non-threatening way to let the world know that I was a bible thumping Christian would be to tell a story…imagine that. Me telling a story…bet you didn’t see that coming, did you?
So here is what I posted on April 3rd of 2020:
Many of you who know me and my family well, already know this story, but a lot of you do not. My mother was one of 5 girls born into an Italian/Roman Catholic family. In August of 1979, the family experienced a tragedy that forever changed their lives and their kids’ lives, including mine. My grandmother (mom's mom) and my Aunt (mom's sister, Pat) were hit by a drunk driver on Interstate 80, while traveling from New York to New Castle for a wedding. But it was not just any wedding. My Aunt was the mother of the bride. My mom ended up getting a phone call in the middle of the night letting her know the terrible news, that both her mother and sister were killed in a car accident. Grandma Lena was 62 and Aunt Pat was 41. I can't even imagine how that must have felt for my mom and her other 3 sisters, not to mention her sister’s kids. Her sister Pat had three kids, and they were young. Those of you who have lost a loved one know how hard that is, and to have it be a sudden tragedy and not losing just one, but two people, that’s more pain and hurt than I can comprehend. That weekend, instead of having a wedding, they ended up having a double funeral. Devastating, isn't it?
So my mom was never big on driving after that. She still, to this day, gets nervous when we're on the highway passing a semi-truck. (It was a semi-truck driver who killed her mom and sister, thus the fear). Lesson 1: Don't drink and drive, but that's kind of a given. Just imagine how that was beat into my head growing up.
Flash forward to April 1995. I'm almost 16 and I CAN'T WAIT to drive a car! Freedom!! I remember feeling a level of independence like nothing else I had ever felt before. Of course there was that first time I tried driving to my dad's plastic shop by myself and suddenly realized I had no idea how to get there, even though it was only about 10 minutes from my house. Those of you that know me well won't be surprised by that one. My sense of direction is pretty much non existent. I would not be able to get anywhere without my GPS.... but I digress. Back to the story.
Getting a driver's license was a little bit easier back then. All you had to do was complete a written test to get a permit and there was no requirement on practice hours before you could take the test to become an official licensed driver. All that being said, 3 weeks after my 16th birthday, I was officially a licensed driver.
Now imagine how my mom must have felt. Her only child now has a driver's license, has no idea how to get anywhere, but can't wait to drive. Can you feel the fear yet? When I think of my own girls being able to drive someday, my stomach starts turning.
Here is the good news: When I was about 12 years old, my mom started going to a bible study at one of her sister's houses and started learning about the power of your words and about the power of prayer. She started learning how to apply the Bible to her daily life and how to use it to overcome any challenge that life could send her way. So by the time I was 16 and able to drive, she was prepared. She had memorized Psalm 91 completely, and it's a long Psalm! I will post it at the end for your reference.
Every single time I left the house, she would follow me out to the driveway, raise her hand in the air, and speak Psalm 91 over me and my car. It didn’t matter what the weather was like. It didn’t matter how cold it was or if it was pouring down rain. She still came out to the driveway and prayed that Psalm over me. At the time, I really didn't get it. I honestly thought she was a little crazy, and I remember being embarrassed when she would do it in front of my friends, but she still did it....every....single....time I left the house. And she will tell you that it was the only way she overcame the fear of her only daughter being able to drive.
When I went to Penn State, I traveled the same route on I-80 that her mother and sister traveled the night they were killed. I passed the same exit where they were found, one of them already dead and the other in critical condition, every time I went back and forth to school. I'm sure she FELT fear each and every time I got in the car to make that trip, but guess what she did? She applied what she learned and she prayed:
Psalm 91
1 Whoever dwells in the shelter of the Most High
will rest in the shadow of the Almighty.
2 I will say of the Lord, “He is my refuge and my fortress,
my God, in whom I trust.”
3 Surely he will save you
from the fowler’s snare
and from the deadly pestilence.
4 He will cover you with his feathers,
and under his wings you will find refuge;
his faithfulness will be your shield and rampart.
5 You will not fear the terror of night,
nor the arrow that flies by day,
6 nor the pestilence that stalks in the darkness,
nor the plague that destroys at midday.
7 A thousand may fall at your side,
ten thousand at your right hand,
but it will not come near you.
8 You will only observe with your eyes
and see the punishment of the wicked.
9 If you say, “The Lord is my refuge,”
and you make the Most High your dwelling,
10 no harm will overtake you,
no disaster will come near your tent.
11 For he will command his angels concerning you
to guard you in all your ways;
12 they will lift you up in their hands,
so that you will not strike your foot against a stone.
13 You will tread on the lion and the cobra;
you will trample the great lion and the serpent.
14 “Because he loves me,” says the Lord, “I will rescue him;
I will protect him, for he acknowledges my name.
15 He will call on me, and I will answer him;
I will be with him in trouble,
I will deliver him and honor him.
16 With long life I will satisfy him
and show him my salvation.”
Thank you Mom for standing in the gap for me when I was just a stupid, reckless kid. I have no doubt that these words spoken over me protected me, guided me, and ultimately led me to Jesus.
That’s exactly what we as believers must do right now. We must stand in the gap for every single person who does not know what to do right now. Now is not the time for debate or division. It’s time to stand in the gap for all of humanity and pray, even for our enemies. If you don’t know where to start or what to pray, I recommend reading this Psalm every single day. Read it out loud. It’s so calming!
If you have questions or concerns or just need someone to talk to, please reach out to me. Send me a private message and I will give you my phone number. I am here for each and every one of you throughout this crazy time. I have no intention of pushing my “religion” on you. I actually don’t like that word at all. I will just be your friend. Sending virtual hugs. Xoxo
And that’s how I started to let the world know who I became since deciding to follow Jesus.
Next Post: What the heck is the FED?
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