alpha testimony

last tuesday i was asked to share in our church's alpha course. and the night before that as i was digging through my heart trying to figure out what to say, this particular dialogue in a movie suddently came to mind -

"i am trying to free your mind, neo, but i can only show you the door, you're the one that has to go through it"

that's what morpheus told neo in the movie "the matrix". in a sense, alpha's exactly like that - show you the door, not opening the door for you, nor pushing you through. but first, in order to even spot that "door", you have to free your mind - forget everything about what you thought you know about god, about christianity, about the purpose of life and go through all these issues from afresh during the course.

it so happened that as i joined alpha for the first time 5 years ago, it's at a time of renewal for me - a new home, a new life, a new relationship. i was able to keep a free mind for everything and give this a whole new thought. that, i think, is the key ingredient of why i think alpha's such a great personal experience.

in case you wonder what alpha's about, here my previous blog entry on it: http://g4gary.blogspot.com/2007/08/is-there-more-to-life-than-this.html