The Beginning of a Journey

"I write these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God that you may know that you have eternal life."

This is my life verse--the verse that started me on my personal journey of discovering God's grace. I've decided that God's grace has been so significant in my life that I want to share my musings and meanderings along this pathway of grace.

God has interesting ways of revealing His grace to us. During 10th grade I had a friend who was interested in working on a youth evangelism team in Portland, Oregon for the summer. He asked me if I'd like to do this with him. I could envision him doing this--after all he was a pastor's son. I wasn't. But the more I thought about what I was going to do for the summer, the more I figured it beat getting up at 3:00 a.m. to milk cows (my previous summer's job). So I said "Yes."

We were among a group of high school, college, and seminary students who were brought together for the purpose of sharing Jesus with people in Portland. I'll admit up front this was intimidating for me because, quite frankly, Jesus and me had issues.

One issue was that in a span of 18 months my paternal grandparents were killed in an automobile accident on their way home from church, my maternal grandfather died of Huntington's Chorea, and my mother died of the same disease. That 18 month span had ended when I was 12.

The second issue was that the religious environment in which I had grown up had not left me with a very positive picture of God. Maybe I failed to hear the message, but the unspoken message wasn't one that made God attractive to me.

Third, I was struggling as a 16-year-old with the issues of being a part of a blended family. I had enough on my plate simply being 16, let alone trying to re-find my place in my family.

So, here I was, expected to share Jesus with others, when I wasn't quite so sure how I felt about Him on a personal level.

As part of our training that summer we were trained in the principles of "Evangelism Explosion." We were encouraged not only to mark key verses in our Bible, but to memorize these verses as well.

One afternoon I went outside to begin the memorization process. I came down to the final verse to memorize, 1 John 5:13. "I write these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God that may know that you have eternal life."

I couldn't remember ever having heard that verse before, but as I read it and tried to memorize it, it was like a light coming on to penetrate the darkness that had overshadowed my life.

First, I didn't realize that you could know that you had eternal life. I hoped maybe I'd be saved if I was lucky, but I certainly didn't know I could have assurance of my eternal destiny.

Second, I was shocked at what was the basis of this knowing--all I had to do was believe in the name of Jesus! This was shocking because in the religious environment in which I had grown up (thankfully not my parents, who have been good models of God's grace), I was led to believe that in order to please God, I had to do the right things and act in the right way. If I missed something on God's checklist then any hope I had was gone. I knew I wasn't good enough, and I knew I didn't always think, let alone do the right things. This was an entirely new and different way of looking at God. And since it was in the Bible, it had to be true.

I'll never forget that day as long as I live. God graciously intervened in the life of a mixed-up 16-year-old kid and showed me grace.

That's how it all began for me. In the days and weeks ahead I'll be sharing more about what God's grace means to me and how the journey continues.

Remember, "I write these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God that you may know that you have eternal life."