Something that struck me was at the beginning, doing some get to know you type things, we had to turn to the person next to us and answer these questions:
- name
- star sign
- what did you want to be when you grew up?
- Sundays are for...
The girl next to me, S, was sweet, and we chatted a bit before getting down to the questions.
"I don't really know star signs," she said. "I'm born in March, so..."
"Aries, I think. I only know that because I had a friend in primary school who was born in March and she was an Aries. I don't really know star signs apart from that, and that I'm a Taurus, whatever that means."
She said her Sundays were for brunch and just hanging out. When it was my turn to answer I said Sundays were for going to church, and helping out with music at church, as I was employed as a student minister.
"Oh!" she exclaimed. "Are you a Christian?"
"Yep."
"Me too!"
"Oh cool!"
"What church do you go to?"
"Wild St Anglican in Maroubra."
"That's great!"
We got called back to report to the group before I could find out anything more about her. I realised she had been hesitant to say anything about her Christianity, assuming that I wouldn't be into it, or I might make preconceived judgements about her, but she was obviously excited to find someone else like her among the group.
We went around the circle and each had to tell the group what we'd learned about the person beside us. Every single person in the group said a variation of Sundays were for waking up late, eating and just chilling out. When S introduced me, she talked about my church involvement. When I introduced her, I just said the bit about her hanging out and eating brunch. I didn't think she'd want to be 'outed' by me. But it made me realise how comfortable I am with my Christianity these days, and how intrinsic a part of my person it is, being a follower of Jesus. I'm not ashamed to say that I spend my Sundays at church or for people to know I believe in Jesus. But I know that when I was at uni, I would have been more like S; I would have identified as Christian if pressed, but wouldn't have willingly volunteered the information.
I like seeing how I've changed, how the Spirit has changed me.
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