Some people think I'm a stodgy, cranky, Yankee. Well, they
are right-but that's how God restored me. I wasn't always so conservative.
I spent the sixties and seventies searching through drugs,
radical politics, rebellion and anger. I spent my adolescence as a ski-bum,
working on a
riverboat and looking for extremes. I rode motorcycles and
did every reckless thing to excess. I believed that life was just an
existential malaise of meaningless, random events and if there was no reason to
life, I thought I would at least make it
exciting. I fought the system, institutions and all the
things my generation rejected. I joined the SDS (Students for a Democratic
Society) and I was tear gassed more than once. I tried a lot of things to fill
that God-shaped vacuum at my center, but nothing fit. Atheism was my religion.
Nothing meant anything in light of death.
Then things I
couldn't explain began to happen. I bought a Bible and actually began reading
it. God was laying the groundwork.
When I decided to get married, I chose the church to which
my family had belonged for centuries- First Church of Christ, Wethersfield. In
order to be married there my fiancée and I had to join. The church preaches the Word of God in the Spirit.
My fiancée's relatives, who are from a long line of
Christian evangelists in China, were praying for me. So were the faithful at
First Church. I believe all these prayers prompted God to save me.
The Holy Spirit began to move. It was as though the Bible had been written
solely for me. Every time I opened it, the passage I read spoke directly to my
needs. Every church bulletin, letter or post card from church seemed to
minister to me as though I was the only person for whom it had been written.
Sermons seemed prepared just for me as did the worship. And I saw the Holy
Spirit in people's faces at every church event. Jesus was everywhere.
One night I even had a dream that one of the pastors at the
church told me "you will receive a message from your shoe." My cat
awakened me, I got up, and went about dressing quietly. I remembered the dream
and looked down at my shoes but there was no message. I did notice my suit was wrinkled and changed
into another, which was a different color than the first one. Now I had to
change my shoe to match my suit. As I was leaving the house I noticed a sticky
note stuck to the heel of my shoe. On the note was a Bible verse. "
I am the Vine, you are the branches, abide with me."
I've been to the peaks and struggled with valleys. I've had
doubts and downs and faith and ups. God
is slowly and I must say, painfully at times, remaking me in His Son’s image.
I know God is at work in me, both to will and to work for
His good pleasure. He is crucifying my fleshly ways, as I learn to be led by
the Spirit.
I am confident of this, "that He who began a good work
in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus."
(Philippians 1:6 NIV)
Jesus Christ saved me from myself. Praise God.
Wethersfield, Connecticut.
Wethersfield, Connecticut.
reprinted with permission
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