In Bad Faith 14: 40-Years Too Soon

I just figured it out. No offense to my friends-of-faith, but I’m amazed at all of my high-school classmates whom I’ve become reacquainted with via FaceBook who post declarations of strong faith on their FaceBook feed. My first reaction was, really, this person? It’s not that I have any doubts that what they’re expressing isn’t their genuine convictions. It’s just that, well, back in high school when I was doing my Jesus-freak thing I don’t remember any of them expressing any similar feelings. Granted, it was the 1970s, who knew what they really believed back then… I know things were said with that typical teenage uninformed bravado that was a lot more black and white than I’d later come to believe. It’s just the contrast between the kids I remember from back then and the statements that I read in my FaceBook feed cause me to pause. I mean, where were they when we were getting picked on for our little prayer group in high school (like we shouldn’t have expected to get picked on for singing and praying in our little circle in the middle of the quad… doh!)? Then today it dawned on me. Oh I get it. My friends and I were just forty-years too soon publicly expressing our faith in Jesus.

Jesus-Freak Joe circa 1974

I mean, think about it. What could be less cool than going on about Jesus when you’re 15-years old? But when you’re 55-years old, well, that’s just the wisdom of age speaking now. What was so uncool at 15 is now totally respected and… well, kind’a expected. Damn. Who knew? I could have saved a lot of mental anguish if I’d known that it would all flip in forty-years. Yeah, too funny. Right now I cannot identify myself as a person of faith, certainly not the kind of faith I proclaimed back in high school or during my undergrad years. I wonder, should we be lucky enough to see another forty-years whether things will flip again and we’ll be back into our old high school roles. God, I hope not!