My Story...and I Aint Even the Main Character!

Here's a lil somethin somethin I had to write up for one of my classes re: the story on how I became a Christian and why. As I'm gettin back in touch with a lot of family and friends I grew up with back in the Twp. through Facebook here, a lot of change has taken place in my life where I've been ripped a new one basically. Why do I share this any ways? For a pat on the back and a "I'm happy for you, Dave!" is farthest thing from it. But outta a joy like a lil kid on Christmas to tell everyone about the gift he recieved would be more on the spot. That gift being what you'll read below...

My life has been one roller coaster to where I am at now. As a child, I grew up going to church every so often and even attended the weekly church education classes to learn the history and foundational principles on which the church built itself upon. Despite this I lived in many ways as if I wasn’t. As I hit middle school I was the center of the universe, female companionship became the object of my treasure, football was my battlefield and music was my celebration of all of it put together. Add it all up with the fact that I looked much older than I really was and used it to hang out with older girls equaled one cocky young buck.

When the end of my 7th grade year came around and it was Ash Wednesday, the kickoff of Lent which is a season in some church calendars for spiritual preparation that lasts forty days before the celebration of the resurrection of Jesus the Messiah, called “Easter.” Ash Wednesday is marked by people getting ashes on their foreheads in the shape of the cross and are to wear them all that day. Being that I was “Joe Cool,” I went to go wash the ashes off. As I walked in the bathroom, I saw what looked precisely like the face of what I thought to be Jesus the Messiah in the cross-shaped ashes on my forehead. Strange? You bet! I called my family in to check whether or not I was seeing things. They saw it too! Nevertheless, I washed the ashes off and went on thinking nothing of it.

The month or two following was marked with me becoming increasingly aware of the existence of God in my life. There was a growing desire to not just know about God, which is code for when I decided to pay attention in church, but to know God in all of my life. My conversations, or prayers, to God shifted from talking to Him like He was my genie in the sky to actually talking to God about my life. But not a lot went on beyond that. That is, until one night.

I found myself alone in my bedroom, on my knees, crying out to God like a little kid lost in the store wanting to find his mommy. I remember specifically expressing to Him, “Jesus, You are the Shepherd and I am the sheep. If You are calling me to serve You, I will obey You.” I was lost in a pile of sin, or rebellion and disobedience towards God. I was worthy of nothing less than to be smoked by His wrath because of my sinfulness. Upon dethroning myself and crowing Jesus as King and Savior of “Daveland,” all I could hear inside was a whispering whisper, “Then go My way.”

The reason this story is worth sharing with anyone is because I have bad news for people according to what God has spoken in the Bible...not human opinion. Eugene Peterson breaks down what God said like this, “There’s nobody living right, not even one, nobody who knows the score, nobody alert for God” (Romans 3:18 The Message). The result of this bad news is physical and spiritual death...an immeasurable eternity in Hell. But good news is not far behind because God has also spoken in the Bible a flip side of the story. Eugene Peterson also breaks down what God said about that good news like this,

"With the arrival of Jesus, the Messiah, that fateful dilemma is resolved. Those who enter into Christ’s being-here-for-us no longer have to live under a continuous, low-lying black cloud. A new power is in operation. The Spirit of life in Christ, like a strong wind, has magnificently cleared the air, freeing you from a fated lifetime of brutal tyranny at the hands of sin and death" (Romans 5:1-2 The Message).

Jesus is the doctor for our sin-sickness and He cures those who trust Him as their doctor and follow His prescription. This doesn’t make life a walk in the park but one can know, like I do, that when he or she stands before God at their judgment they will have an innocent verdict because their guiltiness was handed to Jesus when he nakedly was killed via Roman crucifixion and they received His innocence.