I'm Forgetting Who I Was, And I Don't Like It.
This year, I celebrate my 10th anniversary as a Christian. As happy as I am about that, I have noticed a certain unfortunate side-effect: The circle of people in my life now no longer know who I once was. For the record, I am happy they didn't know the old me, but then again, the drama of the sanctifying power of Christ is lost. They can't see the before and after, only the after.The people in my life now simply assume I have always been basically a moral, very religious person. When I tell people otherwise, they think it is a bad joke. I used to be unrecognizably different. I am one of those people who had a very dramatic conversion, not only in the sense of joy and zeal, but from the mess I was delivered from. I regularly explored mind-scapes derived from the highs of psychedelic drugs. I considered myself a "psychonaut", an astronaut of the mind. I actively hated and persecuted Christians. I studied the occult traditions from diverse religions and mys...