Story

On a recent Leadership retreat for the RiverTree Middle School ministry, of which I'm now a part, I was challenged to write my salvation story.  As I elude to below, there are stories of significant growth and challenges that are probably also worth telling (for example, I was saved at the time of the story below, but it was nearly two decades after that when I began to have a really meaningful and sustained relationship with God.

Anyway - Here’s the draft of my salvation story.  I wrote it as though I'd be speaking it to middle school aged kids…


I was raised in a home where my parents openly acknowledged God but church wasn’t a steady part of life and Jesus was “a guy” I’d heard about but the concept of having a relationship with him was completely foreign to me.
At around age 14 or 15 I was invited to something called Young Life. I didn’t know much about it at that time. All I did know was it was an opportunity to see a bunch of my friends on a school night and I’d heard that they did things like watch funny skits, sing funny songs, and it was kinda like a big party! Oh, and they talked a little about the Bible at the end. It didn’t seem like the kind of thing that me and my friends would normally get into - but I kept hearing about how fun it was. I started feeling like I was missing something by not being there. I was even hearing stories about how certain kids who were considered “cool” were showing up at this thing. I needed to check it out.
So I did – and I LOVED it! The people in charge of it actually seemed to LIKE the craziness and silliness. It was an opportunity to be loud and to joke around without getting in trouble. At the end of the night they quieted down and some adult guy (who was actually very funny) got a little more serious and talked about God and Jesus. It was not something I was used to but nobody else seemed to mind, so I really didn’t either. My primary interest was in all the fun we got to have. I looked at all the “God stuff” as the price of admission but it was well worth being quiet ad listening at the end for all the fun we got to have.
Let me back up for a minute and tell you more about who I was at that time. I guess I was considered somewhat popular. I had a lot of friends and I was voted the class clown of my grade, which I saw as a major life accomplishment. I achieved that “honor” by totally disrespecting teachers and all forms of authority. I told crude jokes, played tricks on people, and even did some bullying. I really didn’t care if I hurt somebody else in the process – just as long as I got the laughs I was after.

So now, back to this Young Life thing… It wasn’t all that different from NRG. Remember, I was going for fun, not to be fed spiritually. In fact I didn’t even know what that meant. But I did listen to the messages the guy would share. Each time there was a little nugget about God that I found interesting. The stories were actually kind of cool sometimes. Eventually I actually developed a genuine curiosity about all of this God stuff. It had always seemed kind of like a fairy tale to me but this guy was telling me that God was real – 100% real! And I saw him putting a ton of energy into convincing us that it was real. Why would some adult invest all that time and energy into something that wasn’t real???

Over time I started having other questions. My interest and openness grew. Eventually I got invited to go to a camp which was like the weekly meeting x100! At that camp I learned about Jesus. I learned who he was and that he wanted a relationship with me and that because of him I could live forever - in a place way cooler than this!

I accepted Christ’s gift of salvation at that camp. My eternity was changed because some guy and his “helpers” cared enough to help me find Jesus – even though I was a punk. I don’t remember for sure who first invited me, but God, the creator of the Universe used that person to make a difference in my life and to change my eternity!

Stories like mine unfold every day. My question for you is which character are you? Are you the person that doesn’t know God yet? Or are you the person that allows God to use them to changes someone’s life by inviting them to church or to NRG? Or maybe you’re the one that God is going to use to actually reveal Jesus to someone who hasn’t met Him yet – or maybe even a bunch of people?

So this is only the first chapter in my story. If you continued to follow my story, you’d find that I took God’s gift for granted for a long time. And then eventually there was another period of revelation and growth, and even a time of spiritual warfare – and countless ups and downs along the way. But the bottom line is that all of these experiences have led me here – to who I am today – to having a meaningful relationship with the One who created me and the One who died for me so that I and everyone I love could live with Him forever in Paradise!

I don’t know what you think, but for me the reality of Christ beats ANY Fair Tale that I’ve ever heard!

You all have an opportunity to write the pages of your own life’s story. Don’t miss it – the stakes are way too high!