Remember when?

Every Memorial Day I think of Reveelation 2:5, where Jesus reminds the church at Ephesus to remember their early zeal for Him. Is that weird? Is it weird that every time I hear someone talk about remembering something meaningful, this verse comes to mind. That's what led to me thinking about this verse last night. I was thinking about a lot of things, remembering, when it popped into my mind. That brought me to the point of thinking about the early days of my faith. WOW! It's been a while. Not too long ago I passed the "swing point" where I've actually been a Jesus follower longer than I wasn't. I've been following Jesus for 21 years. Some of you have known me that whole time, AND you're older than me...just thought I'd remind you of that! I did some CRAZY things as a young believer. Some of them were stupid, and some were inspired (probably more the former than the latter). I would do things like take witnessing tracts and hide them in people's lockers at school, or unroll a roll of toilet paper in the bathroom and put an Answer Tract (remember those?) every 5 or 6 squares as I rerolled the paper. Lance and I would toilet paper people's houses on their birthdays and leave little toy ninjas on their porch. I had a friend named John Newton that nearly got us killed A LOT in South Dallas. My friends, Kyle and Laura, would make sure I got to church every Wednesday night, even though it meant they had to drive 15 miles out of their way and it meant that I had to be the only male Acteen (a teen-girl's mission group) in our church. I remember the youth newsletter that I was the editor for, "The C.H.U.B.S." which stood for "The Colonial Hills Underground Baptist Standard." So many good things came to mind last night as I thought about the early days of my faith. And so many good people who invested in me. Every person that I have gotten to reach for Christ is to their credit, not mine. So many people poured into me to make me who I am today.

Then, of course, the comparison happened. I like to think that I do a lot more now and that I do a lot better now, but it's hard to compare like that. I do know this, whatever I did back then, it was out of a crazy zeal for Christ and the new life I'd been given. How much do I do today because it's expected? How much of my faith is a check list of things that "Good Christians" do? The early church at Ephesus did A LOT of great things, but they lost their focus on why they were doing it. Memorial Day always reminds me to remember my first love, and to allow Him to set my schedule, dictate my day, and have His way with me. I just need to love Him and do silly/crazy things because I am so in love with Him. I hope Memorial Day was a day of remembering for you, too.