Starbucks opens in about forty-five minutes, and so I decided to use this time to reflect on a symptom I had been having rather intensely over the past two years or so. This symptom is called hyperreligiosity; it is an extremely excessive preoccupation with things religious in nature. The passion I have for my faith waxes and wanes, as does my perceived closeness to God. But during this hyperreligiosity periods, I become so extreme about my faith in Jesus Christ that it totally overtakes everything in my life. I do notice it at the time when I'm having this symptom, but I always tell myself that God wants to be the ruler of my entire life—a total sacrifice on the alter, and not just a piece of me here and there.

Because of this symptom, earlier this summer I paid for an online course in biblical evangelism, as well as enrolled to study at a local Christian college. I even went so far as trying to learn how to open air preach, so that I could get a soap box and preach the Gospel in areas where people who don't go to church gather. As I look back at what I was doing, I realize I must have been pretty crazy...or else I just have a different type of faith than others. In any case, that hyperreligiosity is gone in me right now, and while I still have a relationship with God, I miss the intense nature of a conscious feeling of God alive inside of me and working His good through me.

I had a glimpse of this hyperreligiosity the other day when a woman at a bar I frequent approached me. Although she was married, it was very clear she wanted to cheat on her husband with me. In a soft spoken way, I made it clear that I wasn't interested. When I got home I was elated, because God had strengthened me enough to turn down a sure thing that would have been depraved. I turned on some Christian rock and was listening to it for about an hour when I realized that I should have reached this woman, who said she was a practicing Lutheran, for Christ. I had a clear chance to help her, and I did nothing. In the very least, because of her despicable behavior, I could have tried to scare her by saying something like, "All adulterers will have their place in the Lake of Fire." But no, I did just about nothing, because I didn't want to offend her; she apparently didn't care about offending me. And she certainly didn't care about offending God. I have and will continue to pray for her soul.