Boring

Wednesday 12/18/2013 6:12 AM

I have always been envious of those who have an interesting story about how they came to faith.  Some have been delivered from lives of addiction after hitting rock bottom.  Others grew up in dire circumstances in a dysfunctional family and God has allowed them to break a cycle of abuse that has been generational.  Still others have lead a life of crime and been incarcerated as a result.  For them coming to faith has kept them from returning to a life of crime that is so often the case for those released from prison.

In contrast, my story is extremely boring.  I was born into a Christian home and was raised to love God and others.  I accepted the Lord as a teenager and never went through a period of rebellion.  My life has been a fairytale.  I married a godly woman.  We had three healthy children with whom I have loving relationships.  I have five healthy grandchildren who love me.  I get along with all of my in-laws.  I have had meaningful, fulfilling work throughout my lifetime and I have never been unemployed.  I have experienced good health my entire life along with those of my immediate family.  I think anyone would be able to believe in God if they had lived my life.  Faith comes easily when things are going smoothly.  In my mind, it is a real testament to faith if you can remain strong when the wheels come off the bus and nothing seems to go right.  Hearing Job exclaim, “Though he slay me, yet will I hope in him…,” after what he experienced provides more evidence to the depth of his faith than hearing me say I trust in God.

My psalm for the week is Psalm 107.  It contains the stories of four different types of situations where people who were in desperate circumstances called out to God and were delivered by him.  I am drawn to that kind of story.  But this morning the verse that caught my attention was verse 2, “Let the redeemed of the Lord tell their story­–those he redeemed from the hand of the foe.”  It implies that every story of God’s redeeming power needs to be told, mine included.  I tend to judge whether people’s story of coming to faith is interesting or boring and rate them on a scale of my own making.  God simply wants the stories told, the good, the bad, the ugly and the boring.