My journey of faith

Well, since in my last blog I related how I preferred evening church to the Super Bowl, I might as well describe my journey of faith in Christ. I shall try to keep it short and simple (K.I.S.S.), and cover only the hi-lites.

I was reared in a nominally spiritual family. A strange detail of this familial background is that my paternal grandma was raised a Quaker, married a Methodist circuit rider (occasional circuit, that is), and while she was caring for my sister and me (up to when I started seventh grade) she was a Bahai!

My "born-again" experience came on Resurrection Sunday in A.D. 1969, when I was in the ninth grade. A new best friend I had gained that year had invited me to his church, Red Rock Christian Church (Disciples of Christ). The ninth-tenth grade Sunday School class studied the history and practices of the Disciples of Christ and the Restoration Movement out of which the denomination originated. The movement began circa A.D. 1800 on the American frontier as an endeavor to reunite all Christians on the basis of simple faith in Jesus the Nazarene as the Christ, Son of God and Savior, and using only the New Testament as the rule of faith and practice. I was drawn to this message of unity in love, and of faith founded on simplicity. And then the Spirit drew me to come forward that Resurrection morning in '69, to state my confession of faith, leading to immersion in Red Rock's baptistry.

A few years later, when I began studies at the University of Idaho, my faith was still at the "baby-Christian" stage, and I still didn't "get it" that there was NOTHING that I must do (nor anything that I had to NOT do) in order to gain entrance into Heaven and God's eternal glory.

BUT THEN came my initiation into Lambda Chi Alpha. The social fraternity's ritual is firmly based on the teachings of the Bible, and at its heart the initiate re-enacts one of the Christ's key teachings. Thru that graphic re-enactment I came to see a key truth of the New Testament teachings that somehow I had overlooked! My entire grasp of and application of the Christian faith took a major step forward.

Thus one might say that Lambda Chi Alpha is why I'm here in Texas, actively participating in Christian endeavors such as congregational worship and the Emmaus spiritual renewal, and serving the incarcerated thru Kairos Prison Ministry. In my later years at the University I served the Lambda Chi Alpha chapter as Ritualist, which means that I arranged and oversaw the ritual each time we initiated a new set of brothers (always toward the end of fall semester). And thru my Army ROTC studies I heard the call to enter the military as a chaplain.

That's why I came to Texas the first time, to get the further schooling (seminary) needed for denominational endorsement to serve as military chaplain. So I worked on earning a Master of Divinity degree in the seminary at Texas Christian University in Fort Worth. See my final post of last year and my first post of this year, for details of how my life, family and faith developed during those years. Let me affirm that what I experienced outside the seminary walls had a greater impact on my faith understanding, and for the better, than the courses I took there!

The Army decided to keep me in Texas for my service as active duty chaplain. Fort Hood wasn't a sterling introduction to military life. Hence, I was very glad to get a transfer to Tennessee. But there, in 1984 and following, I suffered some of the worst setbacks one could endure. The Army denied my application for career-long service, then we lost our second child to stillbirth, and three weeks later the church I was serving asked me to resign as pastor. I'd been preaching there since my enforced departure from the Army. Oh, and the house we'd been purchasing and then vainly attempting to sell foreclosed. (What did THAT matter in the dark shadow of the stillbirth?) A few years later I was the pedestrian in a car-pedestrian accident. Then I embarked on this continuing series of jobs, not finding one that lasted. Top this all off with A.D. 2001.

When I think back on all the troubles and sufferings of these years, I'm rather surprised that I kept my faith. But that I continued to believe wasn't thru any effort on my part. It was the work of God!

Finally, the two most significant further developments in my journey of faith have transpired near San Antonio. In October of A.D. 1993 I went on my Pilgrim Walk to Emmaus, Men's #327, near Kerrville in the Hill Country. Thru this "short course in Christianity", an intense three-day retreat for spiritual renewal, I came to see even more clearly the amazing grace of our wonderful God. A grace that is expressed in so many marvelous ways, or as the song says, de colores. This de colores grace continues in evidence thru all the "fourth days" of my walk of faith since the three-day retreat.

The other development is my involvement in prison ministry. When I arrived here five years ago, as I've mentioned before, had someone told me that soon I'd be going to prison, often, and looking forward to each trip into prison, I'd have said, "yeah? and I've got some ocean front property in Arizona I'd like to sell you!" But then came my attendance at the Closing for Kairos Weekend #8 in the Torres Unit near Hondo in September of A.D. 2002. And I was hooked!

Last nite these two -- the renewal movement and the prison ministry -- in a way merged, and in a Disciples of Christ church to boot. About all that was missing of crucial elements was a Lambda Chi Alpha aspect. The first Monday of each month there is a Disciples Emmaus gathering in northeast Bexar County. This is for Disciples of Christ members who have been on a Walk to Emmaus. Last nite's gathering was at Rolling Oaks Christian Church. The Fourth Day speaker was Thomas Becker, the lay director for Kairos Briscoe #1 back at the start of December of '06. He testified about his faith journey, and then shared some of the awesome working of God during that first Kairos weekend we presented in the Dolph Briscoe prison Unit. Once again I was impressed with how this young man (young compared to me; Thomas is in his thirties) is such an effective instrument for God's grace!

If at the end of earthly life I can look back and see that I had half the positive Christian impact on folk that my brother in Christ, Thomas, is having, I think I will be able to affirm that "I have run the race", as Paul wrote in II Timothy 4:7b.