Yours Not Mine

Chapter 3

Matt and Faith met at the park every Monday after class to work on homework. When they weren't together, they were most likely texting each other and they had grown close in a short amount of time. There would come moments when one of them had a question about the other's beliefs and they would take time to debate, but most of the time they would rather talk about the things they had in common.

As they were sitting under a tree at the park, Matt saw his friend, Michael and called him over. "Hey, Michael! Come here, I want you to meet someone."

Michael took a seat next to them in the grass.

"This is Faith," Matt said, introducing his friends. Faith and Michael shook hands. "This is my roommate," he continued.

"So, this is the girl you keep telling me about?" Michael asked. When he said that, Faith looked at Matt curiously, surprised he ever mentioned her.

"I love your style," Faith said to Michael with a smile.

Michael wore a button up red plaid shirt with long sleeves and tight khaki pants. He also had red glasses to match that went over his dark brown eyes. His brown hair was neatly styled into a fo-hawk and he was clean shaven.

"Thanks," he smiled back.

"He's gay," Matt told Faith bluntly, making his friends curious. "You think he can go to Heaven?"

She took a moment before asking, "Are you a Christian?"

"Yes," Michael answered.

"Well, wouldn't that answer your question?"

"I like you," he stood up and started to leave. "Nice meeting you, Faith. Matt, this one would be a keeper if she wasn't so out of your league. Trust me, I have a knack for that kind of thing and she is just not that into you,"

"Shut up!" Matt called out as Michael left. "I'm sorry about that," he told Faith, shaking his head.

"He's...interesting," Faith said with a laugh.

"So, if there is a 'Heaven', you think he's gonna get in?"

"I think people are making the whole 'gay' thing a bigger deal than it is. This isn't new. Just being gay isn't a sin. Homosexual acts are an abomination according to the Bible. As long as Michael is truly sorry for whatever sins he's committed in his life, there's no reason he can't go to Heaven,"

"Why be a part of some religion? Whether you're Hindu, or Catholic, or Jewish, you all act like you live these happy lives. When I hear about religion, it seems like a bunch of restrictions. The Bible's like one big rule book. You live by a book written thousands of years ago that just tells you what you can and can't do. How are you free? And your life was crappy, excuse my French, but I'm just being honest. Your parents just weren't there, how can you possibly be as happy as you are? And how can your God allow all that to happen to you even if you follow His rules? It just doesn't make sense,"

"We're imperfect and we sin. We need a rule book. America has laws, so does God. God allows things to happen to us because we have free will, enabling us to choose our path. Because we have free will, my mom chose to leave my family and my dad chose alcohol and drugs, so it affected me. I think God wants to test our faith, meaning despite every negative aspect around us, we'll still be able to maintain a positive attitude. You think I'm the only one in the world with problems? I know God, so if I'm in a bad place I'll pray, knowing He'll listen. You have to let the good outweigh the bad sometimes. I'm one in like, a trillion, so that alone is a good enough reason to praise God the rest of my life,"

"How does praying...work?" Matt asked. He just wanted her to keep explaining things, she had an answer for everything.

"God listens to every prayer and He will answer. It might not always be the answer we want, but He'll answer them. When I was in second grade, there was a spelling bee. I was one of the last two out of like, a hundred kids. I was so nervous and scared, I wanted to win really bad. I prayed to God that I would win the spelling bee. I said about eight prayers, I prayed and prayed. You know what happened?"

"You won and the entire second grade carried you out holding the big trophy as they cheered for you,"

"I lost. C R A O N is not how to spell crayon, by the way."

Matt laughed.

"I was so upset, I tried so hard. I got second place, but it wasn't good enough and I just wondered why God didn't answer my prayer. If I put all my faith into my prayers and if I wanted it so bad, why didn't it work out in my favor? It honestly made me lose a little hope, but you know what it did for me? It made me want to try harder so I'd be good not just at spelling, but at every subject in school. I was gonna make sure I didn't lose another competition after that one. Timothy Porter must have deserved first place more than me," she said with a shrug. "God wants what's best for us. Life's not about what you want, it's about what you need. We can want something more than anything in the entire world, doesn't mean God's gonna give it to us. We need to learn to live some and lose some and just be content with what we get,"

"You sound so disciplined," Matt replied, admiring her. The more she talked, the more and more interested he became in what she had to say. It may not have made sense to Matt, but it was Faith's way of life and she seemed to have more happiness in a day than he would have in a lifetime. There must have been something he was missing. Although he had become good friends with a girl who was a part of a religion he didn't believe in, he simply enjoyed her company. Really, being a part of a religion at all seemed naive enough to steer clear from her completely. She was different, as if she was a new type of Christian to Matt and unlike any person he'd seen before. She wasn't judgmental or condemning. She believed everyone should be treated with love and kindness, and she did what she believed. He wasn't planning on converting any time soon, though. There were still too many unanswered questions and things that didn't make sense for him to jump on the Christian bandwagon. Besides, he spent his entire life thinking this way, he wasn't going to let some girl, who was so different from him, change that.