Meeting Mick Jagger

I have a good friend who is very interested in the Christian faith as she sees me live it out in my own life, but has a big problem with ‘organized religion.’ Unfortunately, she grew up in a home where her dad was an atheist, but a wonderful and loving father. Her mother took them to a Christian church every Sunday, but had some serious anger issues and used to beat her and two younger siblings.

This poses a huge problem: Atheist good guy vs. Christian mean mom.

One day we were carpooling up to Tahoe – and in that 5 hours – she kept going back to the topic of my faith. I have a blanket disclaimer: “I’m not trying to convert anyone! It is a free choice – and one that only you can make.”

But, even at that, we went again and again to topics of certain scripture verses, Jesus saying “No one comes to the Father but by me”, the issues of heaven and hell, the pesky question, “You mean if a mass murderer repents at the last second of his life, he can be saved while a good-guy atheist has to go to hell?” and a litany of other questions she has harbored over the years...most of them mysteries of the Faith.

Finally, I found myself saying this to her:

“Let me give you a hypothetical. Let’s say that I am good friends with Mick Jagger... you know, of the Rolling Stones. You may not like Mick Jagger or the Stones, but you gotta admit – he is a cultural Person of Interest, right?”

“Right,” was her reply.

“Well, let’s say that he really wants to meet you! But, you decide that instead of meeting him in person, you would prefer to go to one of the concerts and judge Mick by his followers.”

“Now, those Rolling Stones have quite a band of followers! They are old and young, drunk and sober, gay and straight, rich and poor, crazy and sane. They are all over the world and all over the ‘map’ too!