Careening through Life

 A Sunday School teacher once said, “God smiles when you invite your friends to church.” So, with quaking limbs I crossed the street to talk with my neighbor Michael. He was a cool older kid that always showed us his latest and greatest Lego sets. I knocked on the door and said, “Michael, would you like to come to church with me Wednesda
y night?” 

“Sure,” he said.

I was elated. My success was so exhilarating that I continued to march across the street and beat upon his door every week. It felt like God was sending me to save my friend Michael. But I thank God for my Mom. She quietly corrected me and said, “At some point, Michael will have to make a personal decision that he wants to come to church and that he wants to follow Jesus. Michael is coming because he doesn’t want to tell you no.”

My weekly trips across the street came to a halt. Michael quit coming. I was crushed.

But God kept calling out from the back seat of the car, “Keep going. Trust me with your life. Put the pedal to the metal.” So at the age of 12, I started praying for my sister to know Jesus. I sensed that God was about to do a great work in her life. About a month later, my sister accepted Jesus into her heart and was baptized in the name of the Father, in the name of the Son and in the name of the Holy Spirit. 

I remember skipping through aisles that evening as Dad shut off the lights in the church building. I squirmed with delight as I told Dad, “Isn’t this so cool. God answers prayers. I asked him to help my sister know Him and she made a decision to follow Him!” Chills traveled up my spine. 

“Yes!” said Dad. “God does indeed answers prayers.”

It was as if God in that moment tapped me on the shoulder and said, “This is my work not yours.” So I pressed the pedal down and the car kept rolling. 

Eventually, I was a burdened for my friend Chance in Boy Scouts who did not know Jesus. God gave me the courage to invite him to church. I dressed up nice that Sunday and when we dropped by to pick him up He was not dressed quite as nice as I was. I wished silently I could go home and change my clothes so he felt more comfortable. To make matters worse, I took him to an adult Sunday School Class, because my home church did not have a class for middle schoolers. And then, as we were walking through the door, an elder in my church mistook him for my girlfriend due to his long hair. Let me tell you, that was embarrassing for both of us.

Thankfully, my church started a youth group so I invited a different friend from Boy Scouts, James, to come. He brought his girlfriend with him and it felt like a huge win for the Kingdom of God. 

However, my desire to share the good news with Chance grew. This led to a couple of awkward invites over to our house to play pool. At one point, I quoted a significant portion of Scripture about the church to my friend. Not my finest hour. Nobody wants a Bible thumper at their front door, but I am confident that God used my feeble attempts at obedience.

During high school, I was hired by Valant Aerostructures to deburr airplane parts. I was surrounded by men and women who did not know Jesus. Foul language flowed like no one even knew the meaning of the words. Thankfully, my heart was not hardened by this, but rather softened. I began to see how God sees us. On one occasion, I remember a guy named Josh sharing a country song with me about a Mom drinking coffee with her son in the kitchen. In that moment, I knew that I was not surrounded by heathens. I was surrounded by lost sheep, by real people in need of a real Savior. Every desire within me to call anyone a heathen fled to the farthest corners of my heart.

Dare I mention how much I cared for Edgar who, despite living with searing back pain, dragged himself to work every day. Sometimes he would say, “I’m not sure life is worth living anymore.” And my heart would be burdened, because I knew that his pain would not end after death if he did not know Jesus. Or Sonny, whose poor choices left him with consequences he could not control. Even the flirtatious janitor who could not see that she was a daughter of the King. God was calling me to make disciples of lost sheep, though at the time, I did not know where to begin.

God knew exactly where to begin. My Mom has a sign above her sink that says, “As far you know, we are a nice normal family.” And as far as I knew, my family was perfect. So, God started with my false assumption and turned my world upside down. He said, “You think you are nice and normal, let me show you how to bring some chaos into your normality. Let me show you how to embrace grace and truth. We are about to get messy. It’s Miller time!”