Our Reputation Precedes Us

I saw her first at NHC a few months ago.  She is an aunt of my best friend from my high school years.  She had two sons about our age, and I had spent many hours at her house - mostly either nerf basketball in her living room or home run derby in her back yard (a hit over the wires and onto Oak Ridge Turnpike on the fly was a home run).  I introduced myself, to which she replied, "Why, Chris Bunn - I wouldn't have thought of you for a dollar."  I'm not sure what that means, but I love the way southern natives talk.

She's been a patient at NHC off and on since then, and now is in the wing where the more permanent patients stay.  Today she asked me if I had been behaving myself.  I said I wouldn't presume to say.  She said, "Well, I've always known you to get away with everything you can."  I said, "I can say this much - I'm better behaved than I used to be."  Suddenly more serious than playful, with her eyes focused on mine, she replied, "Now that is the truth."

In church on Sunday, Doug H. reminded us of the famous quote by John Newton, the ex-slave trader become Christ-follower:  "I am not what I ought to be, I am not what I want to be, I am not what I hope to be in another world; but still I am not what I once used to be, and by the grace of God I am what I am."  That is the truth about every Christian who is fighting the good fight of faith.