Five posters, at least a dozen figurines, stickers, magazines, videos, television specials... you name it, I had it. We all have our childhood heroes. Some people have princesses or superheroes. I had Sting - a face-painted, hardcore professional WCW wrestler. Clad in a black trench coat, he often dropped down from the ceiling, armed with a baseball bat. He was sometimes silent, sometimes extremely vocal, and always had a penetrating glare. I loved him. I always felt safer at night with his picture on my wall, and if you go into my room in PA, his poster still proudly hangs above my bed.

Heartbroken when he left the ring, a pre-teen version of me hoped that a newly acquired birthday gift would shed some light on his retirement. As I pressed play on the VCR, I anxiously listened to his biography, waiting to hear why he abandoned me and his millions of fans. Finally the line came, to paraphrase, "In 1998, I found Jesus and had to take a sabbatical..."

My jaw dropped. Sting is a Christian?!? Not only a Christian, but a self proclaimed "born again" Christian- the kind my momma warned me about. I ran into the next room "Mummy, you will never believe this... Sting quit because he says he was born again and that he needs to talk with Jesus about his career". "Great Kera, your buddy has become another one of those Jesus freaks... that's disappointing." I didn't know what to think... but I knew that I was done watching wrestling because it wasn't the same without him.

It amuses me now. My hero left wrestling to preach. True story. He made a return to the arena a few years ago under the same character, but I was never interested enough to follow his comeback. His biography still says that he is a born-again Christian, of the pentecostal persuasion... his home church is affiliated with the Assemblies of God.

Under the heading of Luke 15:24 "He was lost & is found again", his biography on his website reads: "Now Sting is a born-again Christian with a passion for others to know Christ as their personal savior. Steve "Sting" Borden often speaks at churches, conferences, and appears on TBN [wrestling circuit] to share his testimony to the world. Sting is often heard quoting 2 Corinthians 7:10, " For godly sorrow produces repentance leading to salvation, not to be regretted; but the sorrow of the world produces death."

For some odd reason, as I was sharing my testimony over coffee with a new friend this morning, my mind flash backed to praying in my room and the Sting portrait on my wall. So I Googled his name, and discovered that he wrote a memoir detailing his journey with God, and I definitely just ordered it. Look forward to a book review when I find out how Jesus changed the heart of my childhood hero.

• I learned more over a bowl of pancake batter last night than I have in months.
• Right now, my life needs a mentor and a muzzle.
• i think that sleep is awesome and dreams are amazing. Such an opinion shift in my life.
• So, when did I become a huggy person? I have recently realized that a hug totally brightens my day.
• Praying with people is one of my favorite things to do. Consider this, two years ago I was afraid to pray in someone else's presence.
• Why is marriage the hot topic of conversation lately? And, why am I okay spending hours talking about it?
• I'm strongly considering buying a car over winter break. I feel like i'm living in a different city than I was in this summer because of the lack of transportation.
• Living alone reminds me of my senior year of high school. It's honestly been both the biggest struggle of this semester and a huge blessing.
• When I say I'm going to live in my car, I'm only partly kidding. I would love to live that simply. If it was feasible, I totally would.
• My favorite thing about my commute is that I'm generally the only white person on the overly packed bus. I miss the inter city, and part of me longs to flee the country.
• My main motivation for writing this is to see if the iPhone blogging app I just downloaded works.

This is a fun little anecdote from my textbook that I thought I would share because it made me think about how I would respond in this situation.

"A story is told of an old professor who believed in the virgin birth of Christ some other liberal professors ridiculed him because of this belief. One of them said, "Suppose a young woman entered the hospital near here today. If she had a baby boy and claimed that she was a virgin, would you believe her?" The old professor stroked his beard and was silent for a moment. Then he answered, "No, I probably wouldn't, however, if that baby boy grew up and he could open the eyes of the blind, enable cripples to walk, heal lepers, raise the dead, call a little group of followers and radically change their lives, be raised from the dead, change the course of the history of the world, be called Savior by a third of the earth's population after 2,000 years, and live in the hearts of people, then I think I would listen to that woman's story a second time!"

We have been studying the calling of the twelve disciples in small group, and tonight we are examining Peter. I love Peter because I relate to him more than any other character in the Bible. He was a natural born leader, eager to participate, quick to assert his opinion, and determined to get the job done. His strong personality was both a virtue and a vice- as it often got him into trouble. Peter was so driven that his desire to do the right thing often lead to him doing the exact opposite of what God would have wanted Him to do. He rebuked Jesus when he should have supported Him, he spoke at the Transfiguration when he should have remained silent, he attacked the solider in the garden when he should have embraced peace. Peter was lacking humility, submission,and restraint. Through teaching, correction, experience, and rebuke Jesus molded Peter into the solid rock he was destined to be. Peter was born to be a leader, but he had to be transformed by Christ and empowered by the Holy Spirit before he could fulfill his role as a leader in the Church.

"Peter was formed and equipped by God's sovereign design to be the leader. Moreover, Christ Himself shaped and trained Peter to be the leader. Therefore, when we look at Peter, we see how God builds a leader.

Peter's name is mentioned in the Gospels more than any other name except Jesus. No one speaks as often as Peter, and no one is spoken to by the Lord as often as Peter. No disciple is frequently rebuked by the Lord as Peter; and no disciple ever rebukes the Lord except Peter. No one else confessed Christ more boldy or acknowledged His lordship more explicitly; yet no other disciple ever verbally denied Christ as forcefully or publicly as Peter did. No one is praised and blessed by Christ the way Peter was; yet Peter was the only one Christ ever addressed as Satan. The Lord had harsher things to say to Peter than He ever said to any of the others.

All of that contributed to making him the leader Christ wanted him to be. God took a common man with an ambivalent, vacillating, impulsive, unsubmissive personality and shaped him into a rocklike leader- the greatest preacher among the apostles and in every sense the dominant figure in the first twelve chapters of Acts, where the church was born." (38-39).

It is becoming increasingly difficult to wake up in the morning. My dreams are just too interesting to part with lately. Last night's dream was particularly unusual, amusing, and thought provoking.

10 Things on my mind that I will blog about as soon as I find the time.... in no particular order.

1) Koinonia (in the process of writing this one...)
2) It is finished.
3) Alabaster jars.
4) Choosing joy.
5) End of Times video game.
6) Lost in translation.
7) psychology of religion.
8) love languages.
9) Flipping tables.
10) the latest dream.