Having grown up in a Christian home with parents who took us
to church and Sunday School and all that, the existence of God was never a real
question for me. I always had the “belief.” I went to youth group on
a fairly regular basis and I thought I was an “experienced Christian.”
But it wasn’t until the summer before my freshman year in high school that I
realized my infancy of faith…
I had been a lifeguard for a couple summers. But not being old
enough to drive meant that my older sister Kim had to pick me up from the pool
sometimes. And one Tuesday evening when she
picked me up she asked if I wanted
to go to a bible study with some friends of ours (Mark and Eric) who had recently accepted
Christ. Wanting to hang out with the older crowd I was more than willing. So I
went to a couple bible studies with our friends who didn’t really know much
about the bible at all. I thought I had all of this faith and Jesus thing
figured out and that I would be one of the teachers of the group. But as I sat
and listened to my friends discuss everything (like the parallels between Jesus
casting Legion into a bunch of pigs, and The Stay-Puffed Marshmallow Man at a
Billy Graham convention in Hershey, PA) I realized something different between
me and them: passion.
My friends who knew close to nothing about God were so
excited to learn about Him and be with Him. I realized that my faith only
consisted of me knowing and therefore being a Christian. But I need that
passion. I need that desire to be with God. He doesn’t just want me to say I
know Him and be done with it. God wants me to seek after Him and spend every
waking moment with Him. My newly-Christian friends taught me much more about
faith and Christ than I ever taught them. Being a follower of Christ doesn’t
just mean going to Sunday School and church and wearing a “DC Talk” necklace.
It is about releasing whatever it is you think you know about God and opening
up your life completely to Him. It takes discipline, commitment, passion,
patience, focus (which we have little of), and every other word you can nod
your head at. Faith is not a little piece of mind that floats around your head
along with all the lyrics to “The Fresh-Prince of Bel-Air,” or a logo you wear
on the breast of your shirt telling everyone that you “shop with God.”
Faith is Life. Faith is Action. Faith is an endless search for
Christ and believing that God is.
My friends Mark and Eric will forever be my blood-brothers,
no matter how far away we live or how long it’s been since we’ve last spoken to
each other, because we were washed in the blood of Christ together,
helping each other to grow in understanding, belief, and passion for our God.
