Hello from Dublin, Ireland! As you may have noticed by now, after reading my past posts, I am a Christian. One of the biggest challenges that I have had here is being "in the world, but not of the world." This country is a mostly Catholic country, but the people my age or older grew up that way, and have since strayed away what their family told them to believe in as a kid. I can completely understand. As kids, we are influenced by what our parents believe in, and as we get older, we start making our own decisions about religion. For me, my mom was not a Christian, but my dad was, and still is. I had the choice to check out other religions, or no religion at all, but I decided to continue on the path the God set for me. So, why am I telling you this? Well, here in Ireland, I've already ran into a few people whose families are Catholic, but they do not practice Catholicism. That for me is hard to know what it feels like. First, I am not a Catholic, so I don't fully know what they believe in. Secondly, as I mentioned before, I made my decision to follow Christ. I'm finding it hard to explain myself to someone else about why I chose to become a Believer, and I feel as though I just want to stop trying to explain after the 50th confused look, but I press on and tell them about WHO I believe in and why. This has been extremely difficult when trying to decide whether to partake in the pub lifestyle. I know what the Bible says, and I know myself well enough to know that I will not get drunk. But at the same time, is it wrong for me to drink with non-Believers? I haven't so far, but I don't think it's bad if I have one drink, especially if I'm exploring the culture, but I know that I don't want to be labeled as a hypocrite. In Ireland, you are either very religious or you are just another local who is trying to get by. That aside, I have not found any place that I can call my church, mostly because they are all Cathedrals, and I'm not Catholic.Therefore, I'm relying on the Word of the Lord, prayers, and the podcast of the sermon from Ashland, my church in Richmond, every Sunday. Ireland is a fantastic place, but I know that my faith is going through a struggle to get me to stay on the path less traveled. I have to learn how to be a Christian whenever I am not with a Christian community. It's not like in EA or New York where I had a group of Believers with me at all times. I just have Amber, and I am searching to find another Believer who has a lot of the same values as me, as far as Christians go. I seem to find mostly lukewarm Christians, as well as Christians who are so cold, that they just use the label as a sense of belonging to a particular group. I think that may be one of the biggest things I miss about home. Luckily, I have contact with my friends and family, so that I can be reminded of the Gospel and can ask for Biblical advice. If you have any advice, I'm all ears.
Live for God & Love for Music!
- Patience <3 =)
