well, yesterday my dear friend "chinho" [whose name is francisco] came to meet my cousin and me at home.
he wanted to buy some portraits for his own, but unfortunately the supermarket where he went to is not working anymore and it's already closed. so, on the way back he had to pass by our neighbourhood and he decided to make us a visit.
it was that normal thing of when you meet a person you never saw anymore, you enjoy the moment and ask for news, intending to know whether things changed or kept in the same. we were talking about life, my cousin [who is one year older than me] was telling chinho about the new girlfriend of him, saying how good it has been for them both to hold their relation straight [...] and also asking for ideas of good places where he [my cousin] should take his girlfriend to, places like good and quiet restaurants near to chinho's house [just to state you right, chinho is two years older than me and cooks that good. he was working at a restaurant here in the capital but had to decline his contract duo to his formation at school. so he is the right one to tell us about food and "eating places", lol]
we talked since the early afternoon, around 01pm to the early evening, around 06pm. during the conversation my cousin said:
"- i don't know whether i'm staying at that church anymore, duo to some things they [pastors] do there." [...]
after that, chinho asked me whether i had made the same change already as i had previously said to my friends. i answered "yes" – as it's what i did. then another question came out of him: "where are you going now?". well, i barely understood but i said "i’m going nowhere".
***(let me state a parenthesis to say that i’m, since my second month of birth, a “member” of the u.c.k.G., by influence of my parents who are there since sixteen years ago. but in 2008 i felt in need to analyse whether i was there only by a familiar sway or because of loving God. after i had analyzed, i realised that i was there just because i was born there, nothing more. i was living the religion as a culture or custom, not seriously intending to compromise myself to God above all individuals and things. that was when i knew the 7.d.a.c., through a brazilian tv channel, named novo tempo – o canal da esperança, owned by this same church)
so, after i told chinho that i was going nowhere to assemble, he started saying me how i easily should be deceived if i just stayed home saying: “i believe and want to please God” but not taking part of any congregation.
and he started talking about “dos” that link us to God’s Spirit and “don’ts” that calmly push us far from any chance of redemption. on the night previous to chinho’s coming I had disappointingly dismissed a compromise i had to this Mighty One who calls me son, and was quite about to quit any kind of “re-linkage”… i was deciding to stop fighting against the “don’ts” and just take part of that, once God’s plan was all different to it.
one more time God sent me a reminder, telling me that He wants to save me and wants me to serve Him.
i decided then to “remember who i was in the time of the first and primary love”, the time when sinning was awful and our minds were pure, full of love, in regards to the Grace that redeems us and keeps us safe. the time when being deceitful was like the worst thing ever, the days when we were prompt to any kind of challenge in name of God.
that time is memorable not just because we were feeling like saints, but because we were sanctifying ourselves to a Higher purpose, the purpose of Faith, which is not explained but experienced…
© Leo Neto, 2010. All rights reserved.
Not to be publicized without the express written authorization of the author.
