Stalker

I'm being stalked by Jehovah's Witness.

At 4:40pm on Wednesday afternoons the same "disciple" knocks on my front door, last week with a child and this week with a young woman who kept smiling and telling me I had "good" kids, to assure me that there is an answer to the endless suffering we have witnessed in current events. Rachael? (I'm fairly certain this is her name, although, I've apparently decided to avoid committing her name to memory) is itching to come and sit in my living room and talk to me about her Bible and her God. She actually invited herself in last week, but correctly gleaned she wasn't invited based on the look on my face.

This week she was armed with literature titled, "Would you like to know the truth?" Six of life's big questions, from "Will war and suffering ever end" to "How can I find happiness in life?" are answered definitively in six convenient paragraphs.

I'd probably engage her if it weren't for similar people in college and camp...who act like they want to participate in an intelligent discussion about the spiritual, but really just want to puke back talking points. I know others who do this with politics. Frankly...I'm tired of all of it. We're not going to get anywhere...with anything...if we refuse to seek our answers from multiple sources and engage in thoughtful discussions where creative thought and ideas are honored.

Unfortunately, this woman, Rebbecca?, knows I'm trapped. I'm home every week at this time...and, somehow, she knows it. Maybe I should've invited her in this week, into our feverish household. Since I haven't slept in nearly 5 days, maybe I would've made a captivating audience. I must look weak.

I guess I'll see you again next week Ra...Re...whatever your name is? Next week I'll sit you down with Collin, so you can answer his faith questions...like tonight's, "Mom, how did the first person get here if they didn't have a Mom and a Dad?" I wonder which creation story you would tell him...because the Bible gets off to an ambiguous start with two very different accounts of creation, followed by a re-creation story necessitated by the quick destruction of Earth following God's flood. Answer a 4-year old's questions about the Old Testament God who "hardens Pharaoh's heart" and sends the plagues...or the New Testament God that requires Jesus to die a horrendous death on a cross.

Good luck...because there's nothing like a 4-year old and a children's Bible for one to begin to question faith. We should know.