Wayfaring Strangers: Part 26 and Last.

The fascinating journal of a couple converting to Catholicism came to an end on the first Sunday of Advent.

Here's Darrell on why it's time to stop looking back at what he and his wife used to be and start looking forward at the new creations they are about to become.

Sunday, November 27, 2005
Looking back over the entries I've posted I can see my enthusiasm and dedication to Roman Catholicism growing in leaps and bounds. Now, granted, it could be argued that I'm getting more out of the Catholic church simply because I'm dedicating myself to it more than I ever did to any of the fundamentalist churches I attended as a child and as a young man. I've considered that, and I don't think that's the case. I think that the reason I'm getting so much out of it is because this is the church for me. I think I've finally found my home, in Christ, on earth. I know where I belong.

Nonetheless, when I look back over these Wayfaring Strangers entries, it does seem that I've spent a lot of time airing my gripes about fundamentalism. That's time that would have been better spent enthusing about Catholicism, which I've honestly come to see as the best of all possible paths to Christ. (After all, if I hadn't come to believe that, there'd be no reason to convert.) The tone and mood of much of what I've written has been that of a, ahem, "Recovering Fundamentalist" instead of a happy Catholic in the making. That has to change.

It's time to stop carrying a chip on my shoulder about fundamentalism. Today is the first Sunday of Advent, and maybe it's providential. Maybe now is the perfect time to finally put it down.

With that in mind, this is going to be the last post in the Wayfaring Strangers series. This will be the last post from someone who sees himself as an ex-fundamentalist who's outside the Church he believes in. I'll still write about my conversion experience, and I'll still write about faith. I don't think I have any choice in that. Those topics are the ones I enjoy writing about, the ones I feel compelled to write about. I write it more for my own benefit than anything else, anyway. It's good to keep a journal. Getting occasional comments and feedback from people who are kind enough to read it makes it that much more therapeutic.

Keep The Faith, Baby. Holy Week will be here before you know it.