mystery

Categories: journal

Date: 04 November 2012 08:24:21

a snow covered hill, which (unhelpfully) I have so far failed to identify ...

years ago, I was a teenager / just before heading off to university, I attended a large, Christian youth gathering / these were the days when people were saying that you should be filled with the Holy Spirit, to experience genuine Christian joy / my evangelical upbringing had focused on bible reading, and singing choruses / and when I encountered a group who were willing to lay hands upon me, and pray, I was keen / when nothing happened, they suggested that I needed to confess my sins, which I did, publicly / but nothing seemed to avail, and I left, disappointed ...

later that evening, I met a leader, whom I knew / when I told him what had happened, he reminded me, gently, of a verse in Paul's letter to the Romans about it being enough simply to believe (and there's a bit about proclaiming, I think) / the relief was overwhelming / and my emotion was, indeed, joy, in place of despair ...

some years later, one of the Scottish broadsheets decided to print a page, with photos, of all of the registered sex offenders in the country / I was shocked to see this leader's face amongst them ...

a number of reasons why I've written this story to-day / and I'm not daring to draw any conclusions / except to say that this person was unfailingly kind (and never inappropriate) towards me / I owe him a real debt, in terms of his support ...