My Spiritual Autobiography - Part I

One of the many things we are sent to do as Christians is to give witness to the things that God has done for us in our lives. I intend for this post to be the first (of a few) that attempts to do this.

As I write this, I am deliberately trying to avoid hyperbole (e.g. "wonderful", "marvelous", etc.) regarding the action of God in my life since I perceive that this tends to turn people off. To paraphrase Fox news, "I'll testify what God has done, you decide if it is wonderful or marvellous."

There isn't one moment of my spiritual life that is the clear place to start but there are two early events that stand out. The first happened in St. Anne's church in North Minneapolis. I was a graduate student, in Engineering Mechanics, at the University of Minnesota at the time and as I was sitting at Sunday mass one morning, I admitted to myself that I didn't really have a good reason to be in church and that I was only there because it would bother my Mom if she found out I wasn't going any more. Some time after that I conceived of an idea that I would read the entire bible cover to cover (something I had never done), write down all the reasons I didn't believe in it and then have this document available to hand to people when they tried to evangelize me. (As a side note, being a graduate student in engineering, I had pretty strong reading skills - the Old Testament is a tough read, but not compared to "Mathematical Theory of Elasticity"). So over a period of 18 months, I read through the Old and New Testament, in the order they are listed in the book. Most of the Old Testament seemed to me (at the time) to be like watching the movie "The Godfather" - everybody killing everybody else for seemingly any reason and then a few times where God shows up, and instead of answering any of life's big questions, He rather goes long on what kind of animals you can and can't eat and what to do with the "fatty tail" when offering an animal in sacrifice.

But something different happened when I got to the new Testament. I don't remember who I thought Jesus was going to be, but I do remember who I found him to be. I don't know if it was the process of working straight thru the bible that put me in the right mindset or not, but I remember being struck above all by the Power of Jesus Christ. This was a guy who didn't mince words and was playing for keeps. And reading him in the New Testament was engrossing.

The second "stand out" event of my early spiritual journey occurred on the porch of my best friend's house. I have always been blessed with good friends in my life - men with whom I have a relationship of such strength that we can hold each other accountable when one of us strays. On this occasion, my friend Dan was perceiving in me the disconnect between who I claimed to be and my actions; and he put the question to me. It was a difficult discussion and while I admitted he was right, I wanted to talk about something else. But he pressed me. I don't remember many specifics, but I do remember at one point we were both on our feet and he was driving his finger into my chest and asking me "Who do you say that Jesus Christ is?". I admitted to him that I didn't know how to answer this question. And that didn't sit well with me. I knew I had better get an answer to that question put together. And I set out to do just that.

Continued...