I read a story today about a man I go to church with. I don't know him personally; I know who he is and I know his children and all. It was a good story, good enough to get me thinking and writing. Well, there was an article written about him and his wife because they opened up a thrift store. Their thrift store donates its profits to missionaries. That's not the part of the article that I enjoyed though. The part I liked was about the man. He said he had been a wild man for many years, addicted to marijuana and alcohol. He said he and his wife had separated about three years ago. He said he had his own battles that he was living in. The article then goes onto say that one night he prayed for help, and Jesus answered. Since then he and his wife have reconciled, and he is fully committed to following Him.
I absolutely love peoples' stories. I love hearing about God transforming lives and peoples' encounters with Him. To me, this is a central part of the Gospel. You see, I grew up with this belief that the Gospel is some list of things you have to do or believe to get to Heaven. And in a sense, maybe some of that is true. But the Gospel is so much more than that. One thing that I have learned is that we are all broken. We are all in the same boat. There are not groups of people who are super-spiritual and those who are not. We all have our own battles and pain that we have to deal with. We all have our own addictions that we need saving from.
When I look at Jesus, when I read His message, I hear this, "Okay, you can try to do life without me, but it's not going to work out that great. You will be in pain. You will be lost. You will be enslaved. You will only find despair. Have a relationship with me. I will show you a better way, My way. I will heal your pain. I will guide you when you feel lost. I will set you free from sin and from the Law. I will give you hope. I will be because I Am." He is about changing lives. He is about restoring souls to the glory they we're meant to have.
You see, somewhere down the line becoming a follower of Christ got a bad rap. Holy Rollers, Bible Thumpers and Conservative Evangelicals are the terms thrown out there. Somewhere down the line His message was watered down where we could just go to church and follow certain guidelines (only when we felt like it). Sometimes we live like we don't even know who He is, then just go to church on Sunday morning like everything is okay. Sometimes we like to call ourselves His children, but we really could care less about actually following Him with our lives. I say this as someone who has lived this way before. I say this with true concern and love. This is not what following Him is about.
I too have my own story of how He healed my soul. I have my own story of how He impacted my life. I have my own story to share. I believe our personal stories can have a greater impact on the world than some list of guidelines. Yes, things in the Bible are important but they seem so rigid when they are not used personally. And when I tell my story or when the man at my church tells his story, we do it because we're saying that this can happen in anyone's life too. He is greater than any sin I have in the past. He is greater than any wound that was dealt to me. He is greater than any doubt or fear I have. He is better than any addiction that enslaves me. He is all this and more, and He waits for each of us to come to the realization that we can't do life without Him. We were never meant to live away from our Father. He wants to be apart of our story.
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