the trip back from indiana over spring break was wonderful! for the 1st hr or 2, we read 1 macabees outloud. tis a very interesting book - deception and death was all that happened over and over and over and... one general would deceive another and would kill most of the opposing troops. then they would move on and do this to another army. for 16 chapters.

the rest of the trip was full of theological discussions - whether baptism is purely symbolic and if every christian should be required to be baptized, whether we can pray without talking out loud to God (and if not, whether the deaf and mute are able to "confess with their mouth that Jesus is Lord"), whether 1 corinthians 11:4-10 (about women praying with their heads covered) should be taken literally or considered a cultural command, the trinity, the importance of christians having fruits, speaking in tongues, war, and probably many more topics that i have forgotten since then.

i realized during these talks that i knew what i believed on these all, but couldn't back it up with Scripture or barely any reasoning for that matter. i have a sense of what i think the Bible says about these issues, but i can't locate or quote the verses where they are discussed. sometimes when someone shared a viewpoint that i strongly disagreed with, i didn't have an answer for them. i had never considered that a christian would have views that differed so much from mine. it made me wonder how many of my beliefs are still based on what my family or community believes. there is so much that i haven't thought through on my own. i was really ashamed after we finished discussing. i thought it was absurd that some people believed as they did. but they could explain their beliefs and the reasons behind them while i was speechless.