My Testimony

Not long ago, I preached on one of my favorite psalms—Psalm 73. I was struck by the final verse—verse 28—which says, “But for me it is good to be near God; I have made the Lord God my refuge, that I may tell of all your works.” I certainly have a desire to be near God and make Him my refuge at all times, but this verse reminded me that such an effort isn’t just about me. Taking refuge in God should be about others as well; I should seek to do it in order to tell others about His works.

 

In light of this verse, I encouraged my congregation to share their testimonies with others—to tell people about the works that God has accomplished in their lives. I would like to do that very thing in this column today—to share with you my testimony of coming to faith in Christ and to tell of the gracious things that God has done in my years so far.

 

I was born to devout Christian parents whose faith defined every aspect of their lives. They truly “walked the walk.” I remember my brother saying that he came to understand that the Bible is important because he knew our dad woke up earlier than he had to in order to give himself time to read it. My mom and dad taught me the Gospel from the day I was born, and the totality of their lives made that message look so attractive that their witness served as a powerful testimony for me.

 

When I was six years old, then, I came to understand that the Gospel message isn’t just true in some general way—it was telling the very truth about my life. The story about mankind’s rebellion against God and His gracious gift of His own Son to pay for our sins wasn’t just some story about our race—I needed to see my own sinfulness and my own need of a Savior to deliver me from the penalty of my sins. And so, I trusted in Christ as my Savior, believing that His death paid for my sins and that His resurrection assures me of eternal life with God.

 

After trusting in Christ, my experience from then through my teenage years was like that of many young people. I grew in my faith in fits and spurts—sometimes more, sometimes less. This inconsistency came largely because I didn’t develop good habits in spiritual disciplines like reading Scripture and praying. I knew such habits were important, but I didn’t yet understand how desperately I needed them for my spiritual health and well-being. That lesson would not come in full force until my first year of college.

 

After finishing high school, I packed my bags and headed off to the University of Kansas. There, for the first time, I found myself in a setting where my Christian faith was down-right unpopular! Most students wanted nothing to do with the Holy Spirit’s fruit of self-control (Galatians 5:23), preferring instead to feast on—other fruits, shall we say. My philosophy professor saw Christians as his favorite punching bag, consistently using Christians as examples of illogical thinking. My psychology professor confidently announced there was no such thing as sin, that different behaviors simply reflected different brain-states and had absolutely no significance beyond that physical realm.

 

In addition, there was also a confusing dissonance coming from Christian voices around me. The Religion Department touted the Bible, but in a way that was very different from my evangelical upbringing. Then there was Fred Phelps and the Westboro Baptist Church, who came on campus to protest drag queen fashion shows at the Student Union. Did either of these groups represent Christianity well—and if so, did I want anything to do with this faith?

 

All of these details came together to put me squarely at a fork in the road—was I going to be serious about my devotion to Christ or not? There was no third option—my faith was either going to grow or die. Well, to God’s praise and glory, He had surrounded me with family and new friends who continued to water the seeds of my faith that had been planted first by my parents, then by the Spirit Himself. As a result, that first year of college became a wonderful time of spiritual growth for me. The challenges to my faith were exactly what I needed to come to understand Christ’s statement that “apart from me you can do nothing (John 15:5).”

 

So God began to undertake a full renovation of my heart, and at the same time He threw-in a renovation of my occupational plans. I went to college as a computer science major with very high aspirations—I wanted to develop the first baseball video game that would allow you to have a bench-clearing brawl! Shooting for the stars, I know! But as my devotion to Christ began to deepen, it became obvious that that goal wasn’t going to leave me very satisfied in life. Perhaps a bit richer, but not very satisfied.

 

As I began to consider something else to pursue, God began to make it clear that He had given me strong skills in language—from understanding how it works to interpreting it to using it as a means of presenting ideas to others. He had also given me an insatiable thirst for studying the Bible and anything else that would shed light on the Bible. With these realities and the affirmation of others, it became clear that pastoral ministry would be an excellent pursuit—one for which there was a great need, and one for which I appeared to be greatly suited.

 

As pastoral ministry has now been my life’s work for 15 years, I want to express my gratitude to God for giving me the honor to serve. I am so thankful for all that He has done through me for His glory from the first day of my life until now. While the world is still waiting for that baseball game with the brawls (I think!), I am so thankful that those in my sphere of influence have not had to wait to hear the Word of God. It is a great honor for me to have shared it with them and to continue doing so.