Jesus in my heart???

"That's how people became Christians at my church. We invited Jesus to live inside our chest cavities. At the time, I thought it sounded like a painful procedure, one that might involve a shot or stitches. I didn't like pain or blood. I was still at an age when I tried to avoid bowel movements at all costs, so I wasn't sure I wanted the Son of God building a condo inside one of my atriums."

-Matthew Paul Turner recollecting his Baptist Sunday mornings as a child in his book Churched

I giggled out loud when I came across this paragraph. I remember only going to church on Easter and Christmas...and maybe a few times in between... when I was a little girl. One time when I was sitting in my niece's room (who just so happens to be 3 years older than me), she was in the middle of showing off all of her Disney Signature books - you know the kind that you get every time you go to Disney World? Well, I had only been to Disney World once, and I was so little that I didn't even remember the signature book. My niece had been so many times she had a shelf full of her books. I don't even think she paused between showing me Pluto's name and asking me a very important question that I can still hear audibly today, "WELL...have you invited Jesus into your heart?" Isn't that funny? Proudly rubbing it in my face that she and her family had the money to go to Disney World so many times, and asking me about my relationship with Jesus all in the same breath!

Being the first time I had heard the phrase, I timidly answered that I hadn't and almost burst into tears right then and there because I was so ashamed and embarrassed. It's something when your embarrassed about Disney World, but it's a whole different ball game when Jesus wasn't living in your heart the same way He was in your niece's.

From that night on, I remember asking Jesus into my heart every night before bed...not knowing when the invasion would actually occur. I was scared, too! I knew I wanted Him in there, because apparently Jesus living in my heart was the coolest thing next to Pluto's signature, but I always went to bed discouraged because Jesus never made His way into mine, and also thrilled that another night went by without having to feel the pain of Jesus's new residency. If my niece could do it, though, I knew I sure as heck could.


The book I'm reading (and quoted at the top) is titled: Churched: One kid's journey toward God despite a Holy Mess.

I swear that could be my mantra...you know, if Christians had those.