PASSION or passion?

Dear Fellow Travelers,

The following is an article that my mother, Naia Goddard, wrote about me; unfortunately, the date is unknown:

Mac’s Childhood

Born: February 15, 1942.

First grandson—everyone delighted.

I was saved before you were 4. I realized the awesome responsibility of where you would spend eternity—I knew I couldn’t do what I needed to do, so I spent a lot of time on my knees—seeking the Lord. He knew the desire of my heart and somehow used my mistakes for your good and His glory. When you wanted to do something I felt like Jesus did not want us to do, I always tried to give you an alternative and let you decide—usually, you decided the right way—(The movie episode; I was taught it was sinful to go to the movie). I took you and Kikky to all day prayer meetings and Bible study—you cut your teeth on the old altars—I guess you learned more than I realized. You accepted Jesus when you were five—you didn’t know anything else—it was our way of life. I guess you were tuned to Jesus as we never had any problems with you; you always wanted to please us. You worked hard at the store; Daddy kept you busy where you had very little free time to get into trouble, if you had wanted to. Ray and I taught the children in Sunday school and Bible school. As you all grew, I worked with the youth—I felt called to do youth work as surely as you have been called to preach. Then all those years we went to camp meeting at Indian Springs. As teenagers, the peer pressure was “if you aren’t a Christian, you aren’t anything.” But we had many decisions for Jesus during those years. So you all just fell in love with Jesus, and as you sang choruses and witnessed for Him, you just grew up and suddenly you’d missed all the “junk” and were rooted and grounded in Him.

As I read this brief bio, several thoughts came to my mind, not the least of which was this: from the moment of my Mother’s justification, she was very, very serious about knowing truth—her desire for it was insatiable. She read and studied the Bible, as if it would be taken away from her without a moment’s notice; she attended Bible studies and prayer meetings several times per week; and she never missed a church service—regardless of which church in the area might have been holding it. As you can probably tell from what she wrote, her early teachers were all dyed-in-the-wool Wesleyan-Arminian regarding their theological persuasion. Because she desperately wanted to know truth, she became easy prey for her “teachers.” Whatever these men (and women) said, she accepted as truth—no questions asked! Unfortunately, men like Calvin and Luther were in their opinions heretics, so she assumed the same posture. As you might imagine, before long, her list of “dos” and “don’ts” was well-formed and seen as the “one-and-only-correct-list.” (As you can see, one of the “don’ts” on her list was “Don’t go to movies because doing so is sin!”) Just for the record: she was very committed and just as determined to obey the list of rules given to her by her teachers, and compared to some, she did it quite well (at least in her mind).

My point is this: I know many people who have embraced the Gospel of Grace just as fervently as my mother embraced the Wesleyan-Arminian “gospel”; however, from what I have been able to see, their continued passion for what they believe doesn’t even come close to the on-going passion my Mother had for what she believed. One would think it would be the other way around! Why is there so much complacency within the lives of those who embrace the true gospel? Why is there such a lack of commitment? Why is there such a lack of participation? We should be the people who are most committed to what we believe but—

Thankfully, several years before her death, my mother saw the error of what she had been taught and she became even more passionate about the Gospel of Grace than she had ever been about the Wesleyan-Arminian heresy. She even burned her “beloved” list of “dos’ and “don’ts” and began to attend movies—even dance! Go figure—

I really pray that you can hear my heart in this—I really do!