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| Let's Go Comets! |
Please know that my intent is not to glorify myself or say, "Look at how awesome I am!", because I am sure that my failures out-weigh my adolescent successes. I am not always sure how God works in our lives, but I have to believe that He was doing something pretty awesome with me as I was trudging through the mire of teenage life. I have found that God is constantly wanting to do something great with us, but our lives are often clouded by our own ambitions and selfishness. There are moments when breakthroughs happen. Moments when we realize that God is in control and we are not. The following is a list of some of those moments. We will start with the "half" mentioned in the title.
Moment number 1/2 - Beginning a Journey
This is my 1/2 because technically I was not a teenager, but this 1/2 is definitely the most important step. I first recognized Jesus as my Savior when I was 6 years old. This was the beginning of my journey. There were so many things I did not understand. I did not know it was a journey. I did not know that there would be pitfalls and snares along the way. I did not know Philippians 2:12. It may have been a slow start but I strapped on my helmet, picked up my walking staff, and walked out the door.
Moment number 1 - Finding the Importance of Community
As you may know, I grew up in the church. My dad was a pastor for some of my time growing up and we went to church every time the doors were open. I even remember a time that we went to church one Sunday morning where my dad was the pastor and no one showed up. We continued to have church time anyway. We sang a song or two and dad preached to me, my mom, my brother, and my sister.
There comes a time when a Christian must realize that Church is not at a specific time, is not at a specific place, or does not have a specific order of service. Church is a community of people worshiping and growing together in Christ. Church is the body of Christ doing life and ministry together. Please do not misunderstand me here. I have heard many people say, "Well, I don't need to attend a church because I hang out with Christians all the time." Church is not just hanging out. It is a family gathering for the purpose of strengthening each other and urging each other along in their Christ journey. Hebrews 10:24-25 comes to mind.
I realized all of this, though not perfectly, when I was a teenager. Even in my most sinful moments I felt like I needed a Christian community and that it took precedence over all other activities. When I got my driver's license there was a time when my parents stopped attending church for a while and I continued to drive myself to church on Wednesdays and Sundays. I cannot explain my motivation in doing and thinking all of this except that I have to believe the Holy Spirit was strongly involved.
Moment number 2 - Surrendering Fully
Later in my 17th year of life I attended a youth service where I was faced with a decision. I had been thinking for a while about my life in relation to Jesus' call and there was a certain tug at my heart during that youth service. I do not remember exactly what the preacher spoke about, but I remember struggling with what it REALLY meant to be a Christian. Did it mean that I would just go on with my life and be happy with Jesus saving me or did it mean that I surrender my life and actually make Jesus my Lord? I could not remember anywhere in the Bible where Jesus called us to "just be saved", but everywhere I saw Jesus calling us to surrender. Matthew 16:24 is pretty clear on this topic. I often call this moment in my life being born again... again.
Moment number 3 - Deciding to Serve
After trudging along in my journey, falling countless times, failing miserably, and starting over a lot, I made a decision to go into the ministry. I am now convinced that every Christian is called into the ministry in some way or another and that they need to be intentional about it. I guess I was trying to be intentional about it in my decision. I did not know where this decision would take me, but my pastor mentored me gently and gave me opportunities to put my decision into action. Although it was stressful and poorly executed I preached multiple times to my home congregation before I left for college.
Conclusion
I truly believe that all of these moments were times when the Holy Spirit broke through my defenses and did some mighty work. If I could do it all over again with what I know now, I would have attempted to let my defenses down more often. The defenses we tend to build up the most are the things that are noisy and busy. The busy-ness and noisy-ness of life is caused by our selfishness and it will build up a wall that the Holy Spirit will often not intrude upon. We will also find that there is a steady knocking coming from the other side of the wall. He is there, steadily attempting communication.
