culture shock!!!

i was on a "missions trip" to mexico when i was about 13 or 14 years old. i felt like i had a pretty good grasp of what it meant to be a christian. i was raised in a southern baptist, bible believing, church going home so i thought i knew what was up with the whole spirituality thing. on this trip i met a young lady who really challenged my concept of what it meant to be a follower of Jesus. she was a catholic. the first one i had ever met in real life. i couldn't believe that a catholic could call herself a christian. but wait, it gets better...... she was spirit filled. now i was really confused. i had been told all my life that catholicism was basically a cult and here was this woman who loved God with all her heart, was very Christlike in many ways, and she lived a life full of the spirit of God. what was i supposed to think? i always thought catholics were wacky. i didn't understand the prayer beads or whatever they call them, i didn't understand why they prayed to Mary, i didn't get the whole church hierarchy with the pointy hats and all, and i thought their beliefs about the sacraments were pretty weird too. but there she was. she was so kind and gentle. she humbly took all the crap that us evangelicals threw at her in an attempt to get a good debate going. she never got defensive, she didn't strike back, she didn't try to make us feel dumb (like we were trying to do to her), she just quietly, humbly, lived a life of love. in my little corner of the world we only hung out with people that agreed with us, thought the exact same way as us. we only hung out with people that we disagreed with long enough to ridicule them, or pick an argument with them. it seems like the church in general is really good at finding reasons to disagree. wouldn't it be nice if we could major in the majors and focus on what we agree on? the church i go to has a pretty cool phrase in the purpose statement, it says, "in all things essential...unity, in all things non-essential...grace." I still don't get a lot of things that the catholic church does, but if we can get together and love on each other and worship together WHY NOT? why not focus on what we have in common, a desire to be followers of Christ? i've led musical worship for several charismatic catholic conventions. it's really cool stuff. if you are from a similar cultural background as me it will really freak you out to your evangelical core. i've seen monks in full robes, with the shaved spot on their head, and wearing sandals, speaking in tongues and laying their hands on people and praying for physical healing. talk about culture shock!!!! anyway, i wanted to share this one experience that kind if shaped me, and made me think about how we look at the world around us through the lens of the culture we immerse ourselves into. i look forward to your comments!