On Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday in my building we have a coffee shop. Coffee and a pastry of some type. All free, but they take donations. Lots of talking (mostly women, so there you go) and a fair amount of laughing. Tuesday morning I was sitting next to Mary Lou. Since there were about seven conversations going on, I was just sitting and drinking my coffee and letting the noise run in one ear and out the other. Then Mary Lou turned to me and said, "I better watch what I say. You're a religious person." That immediately made me wonder what she had said, but then I began to think of the word 'religious.' 

What does 'religious' mean exactly? We assume it is related to 'religion,' right? Practically the same word. Most of us have a definition in mind that concerns going to church. But what about when someone says something like, "I eat breakfast religiously." Does that mean they eat breakfast in church. No, it means they eat breakfast daily at the same time. And then there was my roommate in Christian college who told me he dated religiously. What did that mean? That he dated regularly or was it that he only dated the young lady in church? I don't know. But back to Mary Lou.

Mary Lou is a Catholic, so I looked up the meaning of a religious person in the Catholic church. "A member of a religious order who is bound by vows of poverty, chastity and obedience." Maybe she meant it like that, but it doesn't apply to me. I am not a member of a religious order, I have taken no vow of poverty. I suppose I am chaste, but that is unavoidable. And as for obedience, that would depend on who I am obedient too. I give my obedience to God and God alone. Still, I imagine Mary Lou was using the word in the way most people use it, that being someone who walks the path of holiness and righteousness and who is above even hearing unclean things. That is not me, either. Any holiness or righteousness in me comes from Jesus, not me. And if I was above hearing and seeing unclean things, well, I would never turn on my computer, radio or television and I would never go outside.  You cannot get away from worldliness, but you don't have to participate. 

So, am I a religious person? No, not at all. I am a Christian. A believer. I have sinned in the past and I will sin again. I have chosen to accept Christ as Savior and He has accepted me, as He promised He would. DO NOT try to be religious. Never. Just be the best child of God you can be.  

Blessings.