Known to be Wrong

Did I mention that I am known to be wrong about things from time to time? 'Cause I am.

I made a post on August 28th titled "The Rock and the Hard Place". You can read it if you want, but the jist of it was about being willing to expose yourself to the negative influences of the world in order to connect with lost people and hopefully establish a relationship in which you can witness to them. I quoted the 1 Thes. verse about seperating yourself from the appearance of evil, and questioned what degree of seperation that requires. I have been of the opinion that if you are a strong enough Christian, you could go into these worldy places and be okay and would have an excellent opportunity to reach people that you might otherwise never reach. Maybe I'm an optimist.

I haven't completely changed my thinking on that, but at the risk of completely leaving myself exposed for critisism, I am going to share my recent experience.

I went out with a group of friends that I haven't been around in ages as well as my brother and husband. We went to Altus to have a nice dinner and drinks. I volunteered to be the designated driver. Dinner went great, and I was glad I had decided to come. I thought to myself, "What's the big deal? I am having fun with my old friends. No guilt in this." When the time came to leave the restaurant, though, they weren't ready for the evening to end. So it was decided that we would walk down the street to the little pub and have more drinks. Okay, no big deal, we'll stay for a bit and go home, right? Not exactly.

I was okay for a while, the bar was relatively empty and it was karaoke night. If you have ever witnessed karaoke, you know it can be very entertaining. But of course, my group insisted that I sing something for them. I held up the resistence for quite some time, but as the group drank more and became more and more demanding, I caved and sang them a song. And that's when the guilt starting creeping in. My mind went ninety miles an hour! What are you doing in a pub singing karaoke!? What if your Sunday school girls could see you now!? Although I wasn't particulary committing any mortal sin, I knew that the Holy Spirit wanted me out of there.

So what did I do? I told my group I was ready to leave, but they weren't, and since I was the driver, I stayed a little longer. I am sure I was quite the site, sitting there like a little knotted up prude, completely out of my element. Finally, when the entire room began chiming in on the chorus of the ever popular song, "She f@#*ing hates me", the Holy Spirit yelled in my ear, "GET OUT!" I told my group I had to leave and drove home with the other non-drinker in the group who was also ready to leave and feeling uncomfortable.

The night was not over quite yet, but that's where I'll end the story.

So..... I told you all of that to say this.

Maybe I am not ready to be out there just yet. I didn't fall off the wagon and go nuts, whoop-ity-do! But did I really accomplish anything at all for the kingdom? I guess I tryed to set an example, but other than that, nada. All I know is that I'm really glad God loves me, and that He is merciful.

That's it, the lines are open.