Eight Ball, Side Pocket

My favorite elementary school teacher had to be Sister Mary Kenneth who taught 8th grade and was principle at St. Francis de Sales school. She stood about 5'1", wore the full black and white habit, and one enduring memory is having watched her get mad at 6' tall, 200 lb. Mike Fink.

I had never even seen Sister Mary Kenneth get upset before but when Big Mike had the audacity to talk back to her one day the transformation in our sweet little nun was amazing. She picked up her ruler and headed straight for Mike. Big Mike actually screamed and ran away. After 3 laps around the classroom, Sister Mary Kenneth's robes flowing behind her, Mike still yelling, he found the door to the hallway and made his escape.

At that point we thought the good Sister was going to have a heart attack. She sat down on one of the students desk chairs trying to catch her breath. Mike was back in class the next day, not another word was said about it and no one ever again tried to talk back to our dear leader.

Another memory of mine about Sister Mary Kenneth, apart from her wrong prediction that I would one day end up in politics, is a story she told our class one day. She was talking about a saint so and so. When he was young and a seminary student he was playing pool with a few other seminarians.

The question came up about what would you do if you knew that you only had 2 hours to live. One of the boys said he would immediately get down on his knees and pray. Another said that he would head straight for church and have the priest hear his confession. A third talked about writing a letter to everyone he had wronged to ask their forgiveness.

Saint so and so had a different kind of answer. He said that he had already taken care of his business with God and so he might just as well keep playing pool.

Some years later, long after Sister Mary Kenneth was gone, I returned to that class room and gave a talk to the students. I told them that everyday for years I would sit in a desk just like theirs, look up at the crucifix hanging on the front wall and yet never realized that when Jesus died on the cross it was actually for me personally that He died. That only came after I had graduated from a Catholic college, having been an atheist my entire time there.

One night at one of our family prayer meetings our Aunt Virginia shared about a scripture that she said changed her life. She had been a believer her entire life, studied the Bible constantly and taught Sunday school for many years. She had a brother who was a minister, another brother (my father-in-law) who was a very popular Bible teacher who had also introduced her to the Baptism in the Holy Spirit.

Virginia was reading from the 6th chapter of Romans where it says:

Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus have been baptized into His death? Therefore we have been buried with Him through baptism into death, so that as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, so we too might walk in newness of life.

There is a lot more before and after this in Romans to the argument that Paul is making about who we are in Christ Jesus, all leading to the great statement in Romans 8: 1-2;

Therefore there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set you free from the law of sin and death.

Aunt Virginia had spent her whole life striving to be the best Christian she could be. The problem with that, even though she had no doubt concerning her salvation, is nothing she ever did seemed to be enough. While reading that passage in Romans it finally became clear to her. Even though she was still living in the same fleshly body and her soul struggled with doing what she could to be good, her old self was truly dead. She was in Christ Jesus and nothing could change that.

This thought was liberating. It didn't mean that now she could now go out and live a carnal life. That was never her desire. It did mean that if she fell short everything was still OK. The Father loved her, Jesus had saved her, the Holy Spirit was working in her life and would do so as long as long as she was willing to listen.

There are a lot of people just like my Aunt Gin. They know and love their Lord and Savior, are good parents, spend time in prayer and in the Word, are the first to reach out to others in their time of need and give of their own time and talents to serve the local church. But the tactics of the enemy toward the believer are just the same as they have always been.

The enemy does not want there to be peace in our hearts; 'It is not enough, you know how weak you really are, there is another level of experience that you are missing.'

The enemy wants to fill us with religious pride; 'They really need you here, no one else can do this the way you do, you work harder than all the rest.'

The enemy wants to replace being led by the Spirit with good sounding but carnal religious actions; 'Follow the 12 step path of Christ to the center, repeat this written prayer 3 times a day, this is the formula for blessing.'

I am a weak person but I do know that Jesus has redeemed me, changed me, and given me newness of life. Like saint so and so I have settled my business with God. There will always be more that He desires for me because of His great love for me and so when I am willing He gently takes me by the hand and leads me on.

Life will always be busy. It will always be crazy. The enemy will always lie to us and cheat because that is his nature. I had only one shot but that's all I needed and I'll call it for you right now. I have been baptized into the death and resurrection of my Christ Jesus and He has given me new life. Take that enemy! Eight ball, side pocket, game over.