Over the Hill and Through the Woods
I was raised in southeast Idaho in a stable Mormon home. At age 19, I left home to serve a two-year Mormon mission in northern Japan. I held multiple positions of leadership in the Mormon church both before and after my return.
At the age of 30, questioning the Mormon faith (and God Himself), I did one of the hardest things I’ve ever done which was to leave the church of my upbringing, culture, family, friends, and relationships. I subsequently checked out many different Christian churches and explored Buddhism and other mystical approaches to faith while at times nearly tossing out faith in God altogether.
My path to Christianity came while I spent three years alone after my divorce in the woods of Idaho. While there, I determined that I needed to return to being connected and contributing to community and society. My first attempt was volunteering at the food pantry of a small town - 15 miles away from my cabin - where I found myself working among Christians who were carrying out the food ministry. While serving the food pantry patrons, those around me got to hear about my love-hate relationship with church which, I pointed out, was more hate than love.
I ended up becoming a member of that church after experiencing Jesus, the Bible, and faith in a way that was entirely new to me. Christian community, including everything from lunches with the pastor to service trips to Mexico, was an important part of my ability to grow in faith and to understand my relationship with the Lord in a very different and foundational way. This was also an important period of returning to the Bible, prayer, study, and self-examination. As a self-reflective exercise, I wrote down the reasons I was resisting going to church and asked myself if they were truly credible. Of the twelve reasons I had come up with, eleven were lies and one was true. (It is true that church will “suck you in” if you’re going to make church matter.)
When I relocated to Portland, I found GPBC and continued my faith journey by attending regularly, becoming baptized, participating in a small group, attending Sunday School, and serving in ministries. Many of you have impacted my journey in ways that you’ll never realize, and I am grateful for what you have meant to my spiritual growth.
My testimony is that Jesus Christ is our sovereign Lord and Savior. He is the Way, the Truth and the Light and it is only through Him that we come to the Father. It is because of His atoning sacrifice and saving grace that we all have hope in Him. In this try-it-your-way and do-what-works world, what I have come to understand is that Jesus and His Word cannot be watered down or set aside, and I must figure out my life accordingly.
As of late, especially as I look toward retirement, I feel God has been calling me to connect more directly to those in the margins of our society and to make more room for them at my table. That hasn’t been as simple as just making the decision. It’s amazing how utterly separated we become from those in the margins by our standard of living, jobs, interests, cultures, neighborhoods, etc. Recently, I joined the Portland Refugee Collective and took an assignment along with a couple of others to help come alongside in support of a refugee family from Afghanistan. The language barrier has been very challenging, but we have been in regular contact with this family since late summer and we have been able to bless them in multiple ways. Their tenacity, courage and graciousness has also blessed me. I will continue to show up in the prayers, hope, and trust that God will breathe upon this as He sees fit.