I usually get pretty annoyed when I come across an
evangelical Christian. The problem is that I’m usually too much of a free
thinker, and I quickly get annoyed by their appalling anti-intellectual
positions. So annoyed, for example, that I fired off an email regarding this
site – before my wife and I concluded that it was really satire.
So, when I met my fellow election judges on Monday, finding
out that one of them was an evangelical wasn’t very thrilling to me. In the few
minutes we worked together, she managed to bring up her religion twice—enough
to make me comment about it to my wife that evening.
But as we all started our 14 hour day, it wasn’t too bad. I
deliberately held back—she was a nice woman, after all, and there wasn’t any
good reason for us to get into it. Ultimately, she ended up getting involved in
a few heated discussions over abortion and war with our lone Democratic judge.
She wasn’t overly confident, and would quickly bow out of arguments by
explaining that her faith didn’t necessarily give her the intellectual sword
needed to fend off the likes of me.
Late in the afternoon, however, she explained how she had
come to find God.
It seems that when she was younger, she had issues with
mental instability. She said she had been hospitalized four times for nervous
breakdowns. As she continued to describe her decent into despair, she began to
talk about how she was hearing voices.
At first, she said, she didn’t hear them. But as she got
older, they began to distract her. She sought treatment from a psychiatrist,
and was taking ‘several medications, including lithium.' None of it was helping,
and she would occasionally go off meds—only to be pestered by those voices.
After several years of this, she was pretty frustrated, and
made a conscious decision to seek out spiritual guidance. She said she went to
several churches in a quest to find one that met her needs. After going to
a few, she finally found an evangelical one that she felt
comfortable in. But that didn’t really help.
Her new church gave her a referral for a pastor of a
different church, who was also gifted in counseling. When she met this man, she
said she knew immediately that he would be able to help her. And so he did. He
explained to her how the voices were daemons, and that she had to work to drive
them out. He told her about Christ’s love, and how that was the power that
would heal her.
He enforced lifestyle changes – he made her stop drinking, for
example – and apparently even performed some kind of exorcism. After he saw her
for a while, he even instructed her to stop taking her medications.
At one point, she began to forsake him – and ended up back
in the hospital. She came back, however, and this pastor continued to guide her
to the plane of mental stability that she sought.
She still hears voices, she said – but now says it’s the
voice of God telling her that she’s doing the right thing. Through her church
and faith, she found the peace she so desperately needed. And, while working
with her throughout the day, it was evident in her attitude. The woman
positively glowed.
On Monday night, after we sparred on religious issues for a
bit, I reassured her by telling her that I thought her faith in God was a truly
beautiful thing. But I didn’t see how beautiful it was until I heard her story.
Her quiet conviction really allowed the beauty of her faith to shine.
Sometimes it’s better if we just take a few minutes to
listen.
