Sent in by Sharon

I remember a day in 2000 when my children were still living at home. My de-conversion had already begun, I think. I was getting into their contemporary music, both Christian and “secular,” as it was called. I was going to a church where I felt more free, dancing was part of the worship service, and now I was dancing at home to anything.

On this particular day, I was dancing to a song on a CD belonging to my 16-year-old daughter called “Spirit In The Sky.” I don’t know if it was a “secular” or a Christian artist.

That song made my heart soar, and I didn’t know why. Maybe it was just because I was feeling more and more like flying those days, as I was beginning to loose myself from the restraints of Christianity.

One of my two daughters saw me dancing and ran to get her sister, yelling, “Come look at Mommy! You’ve got to see this!” My other daughter came and saw and both yelled, “Go, Mommy!” and started dancing with me.

I still love that song and dance to it today.

Both of my daughters are out of my life now. One says she has disowned me permanently, and the other says she is just taking some time off from our relationship. They both are devoted Christians, just as I, regrettably, raised them to be. And they both seem to blame me for family traumas that resulted from the heavy negative influence of Christianity on my life and on my parenting style.

But the memory of dancing to “Spirit In The Sky” with them that day brings me great joy. That song unleashed a spirit of irreverence that is still alive and thriving in my heart today. As I dance, I sing ever-so-sarcastically, “I never been a sinner, never sinned, I got a friend in Jesus!”

Tongue-in-cheek humor has been such a therapeutic companion in this whole deconversion process of mine.