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Posted on 01/16/2012 5:19:14 AM PST by marktwain
In 2005, my husband and I started the process to adopt a little girl from China. It was a brand new scary process that we knew nothing about. All we knew was that we wanted a child.
When I am passionate about something, I want to know everything I can about it. So, I did a lot of reading about China and adoption.
One of the people I read about was a woman named Gladys Aylward. She was a poor woman from London who wanted to go to China in the 1930's to be a missionary. but she had no skills, no education and she didn't speak the language, so no formal organization would allow her to go.
She was angry and frustrated, but she didn't give up. She spent a year working and saving, so she could make the trek on her own.
As she spent time in China, it become more and more her home. More and more a place she belonged and eventually, a place, she never wanted to leave.
Things got very ugly in China when the Japanese invaded and her family wanted her to leave, but she refused.
No matter how dangerous it got, she would not walk away from the people she had grown to love.
She said, "Greater Love Has No One Than This, That He Lay Down His Life For A Friend"- John15:13.
She said, "These are my people".
Unlike Gladys, I didn't want to be in this community.
I came here purely out of a desperate need.
A need to save my life.
What I found here is rare.
The gun community is a generous community. It is unlike any other I have been associated with.
I did, for a while, belong to the adoption community for a few years and though I am still crazy passionate about children and orphans.
Those are not my people.
I did, for a while, belong to the church going Christian community and though I am still crazy passionate about God.
Those are not my people.
Generally a group, any group, has an agenda. Stated or not. Conscious or not. No matter how well meaning, they almost always want something.
That something is usually steeped in power and control.
Politicians, religions, schools, the anti gun crowd, you name it. They want to bring you for what you can give them, which is often nothing more than a feeling of power and self worth for the leaders of the group.
They want to take something from you in order to gain something for themselves.
Not this group.
In the past 10 months, I have gained so much more than the ability to line my front site on the target.
This group has welcomed me when I had absolutely nothing to offer them.
I was empty.
I was broken.
I need things I was to weak to even know I needed.
I came here desperate and searching.
Day by day this community, these gun people, bult me up.
They never once pretend to be anything other than exactly who they are.
They didn't try to wrap themselves up in a pretty little package to draw me in.
They didn't use smoke and mirrors and they never, not once, lied to me.
They told me things I didn't want to hear. They showed me things I didn't want to see. They made me face thing I didn't want to face.
All while holding my hand and guiding me and nurturing me and givng me a safe place to grow.
They wanted me to grow.
They wanted me to be stronger.
They wanted me to be able to depend on myself.
They gave me everything they had, so I wouldn't need them any more.
They gave me tools and guidance, so that I could soar and each and every time I took a step forward, they have been there, to say, good for you. Job well done.
They did this, not because of me.
Not because I am something special.
They did it because they are special.
They are rare and they are so very, very special.
It is who they are.
Dig deep. Dig into the core of their being.
This is who they are.
You, you who hate guns, you gave me nothing.
No hope.
No tools.
All that was offered me was a life of fear, of resentment, of bitterness, of dependance...
The gun community has offered me hope and strength, and courage.
They have taught me to have belief in myself.
They have asked nothing of me in return and, yet, I would give them my life.
Funny thing is, they would never ask me to.
This is where I belong.
These are my people.
"That was the most uplifting thing I've read in a long, long time. Thank you."
(Sigh).
What ever happened to paragraphs in writing? This “style” puts me in mind of a heroin addled mind trying to link so many scattered thoughts.
Often times, in the FR posting window, I get caught up in the 40-some-odd character lines, and I think I’ve written entire paragraphs.
Then I hit return.
And I look up and see that I’ve typed out something quite nice. When I hit “Post” it turns out to be a bunch of drivel, spaced out in seperate sections.
On topic though, You meet the nicest people in gun stores. And motorcycle shops.
Sometimes the content is more important than the manner in which it was delivered. This is one of those occasions, and if you don’t get that I would suggest that you lack something far more important than writing skills.
I believe the woman wanted each of her heartfelt thoughts to be considered of itself. I found it very moving to hear a newcomer speak in such terms about us. Yes, us. We who treasure our freedoms.
She lived in China and knows what a nonfree society is like.
I don’t mind her style. What’s it going to do, use up copier paper? If I want to print it, I’ll cut, paste, & edit. Sheesh!
I am as pro gun as anyone at FR, but the part where she said that the Christian community was not her people made me sad.
There will be no guns in heaven, so she may not think she will feel like she belongs, but there will be many Christians whom she does not feel as if she belongs around.
I hear so many Freepers say that I like God, and I am a Christian, but Christians turn me off because they are so hypocritical. Well, heaven is going to be full of former people who were hypocrites.
So I would advise my fellow Freepers, along with this woman, to keep searching for a church where you feel like you belong, because you need to get used to being around those hypocrites if you ever plan on making it to heaven.
Hear is a tip that might help you in your search. Maybe, just maybe the hypocrite is not them, maybe it is you. Take a look at the person in the mirror and try to find out why you feel like you don’t belong in the crowd of hypocritical outcasts and losers that Jesus hung around with.
Remember, they are all there because they know they are losers and need help, but healing can be a slow process at times. One of the things most Christians need the most help in is getting along with other people who are flawed like them.
(Sigh).
What ever happened to respecting quality content? This “nitpicking” puts me in mind of a raging Leftist he11-bent on tearing down an opposing view if only by insulting style for want of meaningful criticism.
Too bad the anti-gun libtards will reject any of it out of hand as, 'brainwashing' by a gun culture.
Some people become hypersensitive to being “used”. As noted, most groups - religious included - as a group entity want something from participants. This is a problem for those who are burned out from giving too much by compulsion. Few groups indeed ask absolutely nothing of participants; as noted, one of those few is the shooting community wherein we’re happy if you just put holes in paper in accordance with The Four Rules, with no pressure to “do more for the group”. The author notes an affinity to Christian circles, which is good - and maybe some healing from another zero-demand group will help a return thereto once the hypersensitivity is allayed.
Cheers!
Five minutes at any gun counter at any gun shop in the country will refute that one. My favorite is still the one about the .380acp glaser safety slug being so powerful that one round will blow your arm clean off at the shoulder.
"Take a look at the person in the mirror and try to find out why you feel like you don’t belong in the crowd of hypocritical outcasts and losers that Jesus hung around with."
Just maybe it's because we've been lied to, cheated, and/or screwed over more often by self proclaimed born again Christians than by used car salesmen, crack heads, or more overt politicians.
There's a whole bunch of "believers" out there that Jesus would have taken a switch to!
Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for He who promised is faithful. And let us consider one another in order to stir up love and good works, not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as is the manner of some, but exhorting one another, and so much the more as you see the Day approaching. Hebrews 10:23-25
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