August 14th, I received this comment in response to my blog “in response to my last blog” from a woman named Andrea:

You seem to have this really sad trend of clinging to your god. You choose to turn a blind eye to the truth itself. There’s gonna be sin, for sure. You’re gonna commit sin every day of your life. If you keep living and dying because others relish in their sins and you do not, you’re just as bad as they are. You think vulgar music and calling a penis by other names is evil. You know what’s evil? Watching Jesus freaks judge the world just because their “god” had some dude write down ten rules and a bunch of guidelines. What we live, the good and bad is our life. This is our heaven and our hell. Praying isn’t going to grant you wishes, and if you feel alone in this universe, perhaps you’re alienating everyone around you.

And here is my response to the response to my response. (i couldn’t resist)

—

Andrea, first, thanks for reading my blog. I’d love to hear how you stumbled across it.

Now, as for the truth, this is what I believe to be Truth.

The Truth, I agree, is that there is going to be sin. Let me define that first: sin is the things that we think, say, and do that are contrary to God, that are disregarding the relationship with Him we were created to be in, and when we don’t do what we know we should. We are all sinners (Romans 3:23), so there is going to be sin, and I also agree with you that we are going to commit sins everyday of our lives.

However, where we first differ is in the fact that I know it’s not good to “relish in [our] sins.”

You say that I’m a “Jesus freak” (thank you, by the way, i take that as a compliment) and that I’m judging “the world just because [my] ‘god’ had some dude write down ten rules and a bunch of guidelines.”

First, I wasn’t judging the world. The people I was writing my blog about and to (including myself) are Christians and I was encouraging them (albeit very bluntly) to seriously consider what it is that they are finding their entertainment in and how they conduct themselves, because the sin you say that we should “relish in” is something that as Christians we should not relish in. It’s not my place to present them with any standard that I don’t expect myself to be judged by too. And Christian’s are encouraged in the Bible to “put off [our] old self, which belongs to [our] former manner of life and is corrupt through deceitful desires…and to put on the new self, created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness” (Ephesians 4:22-24) because we love Him, and because we don’t want our relationship with him to be hindered in any way.

From your comment, I’m assuming you’re not a Christian, and I want you to know that I am by no means holding you to this standard. It is not my place to judge you, or tell you what to do, and that’s not what I intended to do in my blog. Again, it was written to my Christian friends, not to be applied to you or the world.

As for prayer, I don’t think of it as getting my wishes granted. Prayer is an opportunity to talk to God, my Creator and my Savior.

Also, I don’t feel alone in this universe. I have been blessed enough to have a great family who loves me, and great friends who would agree with me in saying that I’m not alienating them. Even my non-Christian friends and family would agree that if anything I’m doing the exact opposite of alienating anyone.

I would love to hear your response to this, and maybe you could explain a little more to me about how you view the world, and what you believe.

–Cait