Who Wants to be a Christian Anyway?

If you really don’t love Jesus, I want you to know something. I understand. I get it. I really do. A friend of mine commented on my Facebook post today and it took me back to the man I used to be. My friend said that they couldn’t imagine me wearing Alice Cooper facial makeup. That’s the thing isn’t it? I really am a new creation and she never knew the man who used to be Kevin Abell.

I've spent part of my evening going through my high school yearbook looking at my Alice Cooper getup. Wow. I used to have hair. That is about the only thing I miss about that young man. This picture was taken during our high school lip sync competition when I was in grade 11. I was performing Alice Cooper’s ‘He’s Back. (The Man Behind the Mask)’ It's a nice little diddy about a mass murderer named Jason. If you've watched any of the Friday The 13th movies, you're likely familiar with the character. Some of you were with me then. Perhaps you remember the young man I was. Or maybe you never really knew what was inside of me.

I had grown up believing that Santa Claus was real. I was told that milk did the body good, that people are really just a bunch of monkeys and that the universe was billions of years old. My first contact with a Christian was young lady named Melissa Milmine. Funny. As I flip through my old yearbook, she was in my grade 11 homeroom.


I went to church once in a while, but she was still the first Christian I knew of. Pastors don’t count as being Christians. It’s their job. Youth pastors aren't really Christians either. That’s just what they do. I remember Melissa talking to me in English class, asking about the kind of music that I listened to. Knowing what I know now, sitting on this side of life, I wonder what was going through her mind. Was she intentionally ‘witnessing’ to me? Did she know how lost I really was and did she hope that I would come into a personal relationship with Jesus? Probably.

I don’t remember everything about the conversation. I probably told her about Alice Cooper, Motley Crue and Anthrax. Then she asked me this weird question. “If I gave you some Christian music, would you listen to it?” What a silly thought. ‘What was Christian music anyway?’, I wondered. I really didn’t know what to say. What could a bunch of Christians possibly sing about that I would want to listen to? What do Christians do? What do they talk about? As far as I was concerened, I couldn't imagine that they would have sang about anything that would have interested me.

So I asked. “What do they sing about in Christian music? Sure, I guess I’d listen to it, as long as there are some love songs. I don’t mind slow music as long as it’s in a love song.”

I had listened to hymns in church before, but that wasn’t Christian music. That was church stuff. And it had to be played on an organ. That was the rule.

Whatever these Christians were, I really had no intention of becoming one. Even though I had no intellectual idea of what it meant to be a believer, something inside of me knew. There was a voice inside my head telling me that the life I was living really wasn’t consistent with being a follower of Jesus Christ, in spite of the fact that I had no idea of what that entailed.

Now that I am ‘one of them’, it’s as if I’m stuck between two worlds. The people in my life now find it odd to see the person that I was. While some of the people who knew me before say things like, “Man...Abell has gone off of the deep end.”

So if you aren’t a believer, I really don’t expect you to want your life to count for Jesus. Why would you? I don’t expect you to give up your personal crutch. Maybe it's something as simple as beer or food. After all, what else do you have to fall back on? Maybe you just need a holiday. You're right. I really haven't walked in your shoes, nor you mine. Why would you want to be a new creation? I mean, if living life to the fullest is your gig, then Jesus really isn’t for you anyway. Is He?

I don’t think that many nonbelievers read my blog anyway, so I’m probably speaking to myself. If this does make it in front of you, do you believe that I love you? Do you think I’m trying to mess with your head or ruin your fun? If you are anything like the man I used to be, you probably do think those things. Everything that Melissa said to me sounded like nonsense. Do my words not sound the same?

By the way Melissa, if you ever find this – let this be a thank you. Knowing what I know now, you likely did a bit of praying for me. When you listened to a sermon about reaching out to the lost, I likely came to mind. You likely had me on your heart and you were probably a bit apprehensive, if not afraid to do your best to share your faith with me, but thank you. Even though I never liked your music at the time, thanks for being willing to listen to The Lord’s prompting. If you like the kind of believer that I have become, maybe it had something to do with you being willing to do what you could to reach into my Alice Cooper world.

And since Alice Cooper is a "Christian" now, maybe I should start buying back my old cd's.