Above: Aslan the lion – Julian, California – Pirate’s Cove baptisms – Ancient Ichthus symbol
My Real Memoir
“We are not human beings having a spiritual experience. We are spiritual beings having a human experience.” ~Pierre Teilhard de Chardin
We’d both been changed, first by our betrayal of one another, and then by forgiving one another. When we first met, we were trapped in parallel tunnels. Mine was anxiety, Dinah’s was depression. But then our mutual crisis merged them into one. We were sharing not just our pain, but our hope, our whole human experience.
I was pushing toward the light at the end of that tunnel. And Dinah was trying to determine whether there really was a light. Despite my rickety newborn-colt conversion, she had to admit, it was changing me for the better. Could it do the same for her?
The weekend following our twin infidelities, we took a long talk-a-block drive, and ended up in Julian, a quaint 19th century gold-mining town. And there, over Julian’s fabled apple pie, Dinah asked, “What about people who’ve never even heard of Jesus?” I told her I didn’t believe God focused on what people knew, but on how they responded to the light they’d been given. “He knows whose hearts are his.”
“Like Socrates?” She knew how much I esteemed the founder of western philosophy.
“Only God knows,” I told her, “but I suspect, with Socrates’ views on the divine, if he’d lived a few centuries later he’d have been a Jesus-follower.” And then I reminded her of Emeth, a character in C.S. Lewis’s The Last Battle, a book we both loved. Emeth served a false god until he met Aslan, the one he’d meant to serve all along. He expected Aslan to condemn him. But, knowing the true trajectory of Emeth’s heart, Aslan received him as one of his own.
Two weeks later, near the end of spring, I was baptized in the tooth-rattlingly cold waters of Newport Beach’s Pirate’s Cove, and emerged feeling impossibly warm. More psychological effect than alert-the-Vatican miracle, perhaps. Still, I knew God had received me as one of his own.
As I came ashore, Dinah presented me with a silver cross. It was beautiful, but too easily mistaken for jewelry (odd for something that started out as a torture device). So I alternated wearing it with a fish-shaped pendant I’d bought the day before. First century Jesus-followers had adopted “Ichthus” (ΙΧΘΥΣ), the Greek word for “fish,” as an acronym for Jesus’ name and title. Wearing it, I felt a kinship with them.
Dinah had also bought something for herself – a Bible. “I figured I should check your source material,” she smirked.
Two weeks later (the way I remember it, at least), we proposed to us:
“Maybe we should–?”
“Get engaged?”
“Yes.”
In unison: “So, will you…?”
In unison: “Yes.”
Almost immediately, Dinah started pre-marital counseling with Pastor Romaine at Calvary Chapel, the same man who’d baptized me. Regarding faith, he counseled her to take her time, and not let me be pushy. I bit my tongue until it was numb.
And then, on a warm mid-July pizza night, while passing the parmesan, she grinned and said, “Oh, yeah, forgot to mention…
“I believe.”
My Real Memoir is a series. To read the next one, click here.
I enjoyed this post. Our conversions are so personal and yet they are encouraging. I appreciate you sharing this part of your journey. Thank you. By the way, I am having issues with my WordPress editor and cannot add a post at this time. I am a little frustrated with WordPress at this time. I do not want to pay a monthly prescription for help that should be free. Any experience in this area?
I wish I could help, San, but I don’t know why that’s happening. WordPress help should be available to you, even if you have a free prescription.
Thanks, Mitch. My WP isn’t free, though.
? I think customer service (“happiness engineers”) is available to all WP bloggers, San.
Love the Chardin quote! I’m a believer, too! Enjoy your afternoon!
Thank you, my Anonymous friend, you too!
Awesome post, thanks for sharing
My privilege, L.G.
Yay!!!!
🧡
I clicked on the “Calvary Chapel” link and saw this:
“on Saturday, April 16, 1977, I walked into Calvary Chapel’s Saturday Night Maranatha Concert.”
That was during the 2 year period that I was driving down to Calvary Chapel from West Covina every Saturday night. It is very possible I was in that crowd that night.
That is a period of time that I will never forget.
Thanks for sharing, Mitch.
Me too, Chris. And how cool that we may have been there at the same time.
Dinah’s belief in our Lord Jesus Christ was a true gift of your relationship with one another. 🙂
Absolutely, Nancy.
Wonderful.
Thank you, Andrew.
A very moving and a personal memory for you. Thank you for sharing.
It’s reassuring in it’s own way to realise I wasn’t the only one struggling to work things out.
Far from it, my friend.
Ahhhh that’s beautiful 😍 brings tears of joy to my eyes
“We are not human beings having a spiritual experience. We are spiritual beings having a human experience.” ~Pierre Teilhard de Chardin
I love that quote.
I wonder how many people have come to C. S. Lewis–either for a good story or an explanation of why people get so worked up about Christianity–and find themselves drawn in to the compassion, wisdom, power, and love of Christ. I wonder if, as people STILL enter heaven’s gates because of his influence, Lewis marvels how God has used his writings to such far-reaching effect?
So true, Nancy. And, oh, how I look forward to joining him and Tolkein at their heavenly Inklings meetings.
I like the phrase how we respond to light…
me too! I thought the same! 🌟🧡
Beautiful, man. And well-shared.
Thanks, Ed.
Great post, Mitch. It is also my belief that God judges by how we respond to the light we’ve been given. This notion is very succinctly expressed in 1 Samuel 16:7 when the prophet was trying to judge Jesse’s sons to know who was worthy to be king. “Man looketh on the outward appearance, but the Lord looketh on the heart.” Once the heart is submissive and aligned towards ultimate good, it will undoubtedly accept God once it finds His true form, be that in this life or the next.
I couldn’t agree more, Abe.
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This is a beautiful reminder that faith often begins in the cracks. And, sometimes, love becomes the path that leads us to belief.
Actually, your storytelling carries the weight of experience but also the luminosity as well as brilliance of insight. Of course, it is rare and exquisite.
Thank you so much, Rakesh.
Always love your personal stories.
Blessings
Thank you, Pete, and blessings to you.
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Thank you for sharing so openly~
My privilege, Mollie.