This is a speach i had to write for class. It is the first speach I have ever written, and I had a hard time trying to write how I would talk. Here it is:
Why My Feet are Here
You mentioned the other day that you disliked talking about yourself, and I agree, there is certainly something narcissistic about subjecting others to listening about what one thinks of themselves. Today I would like to talk about where I am, not who I am. When I sat in this class last week, I couldn’t help but ponder the different walks of life and ethnicities represented in this room. I do not really control where my mind goes, but for whatever reason, I have been researching Judaism a lot lately. I could not help but reflect on the fact that from the time of Abraham until a little more than two-thousand years ago, we were all considered gentile dogs. With very very few exceptions, God’s redemption and the salvation message was not meant for us. It was our ancestors that held God’s people captive, destroyed their cities, and were wiped out and judged because of that. But two-thousand years ago, one man’s death changed that for us, and salvation was opened to all who would receive it. That is the real reason that we are all here today as a group, but each individual here has a side story; their personal component to this classroom. I see the age differences in this classroom, and it amuses me that although our feet have surely been planted in all kinds of unique and vastly different places, that they are all on the same carpet right now. I would like to tell you about the path that I took to get here, standing before you in the same room with you guys today.
I often wonder about the decisions we as people make, and how God uses them and works His will despite them. Some people seemingly have their life on track, slip up once, and are never heard from again. Others God chases down like a sadistic hunter, refusing to give up His pursuit despite our greatest efforts to escape. Like the story of Jonah I am sure you are familiar with. The story of Sergeant Alvin C. York, a WWI hero also comes to mind. He was a drunken country boy, who had absolutely no interest in the things of God. One drunken late night while riding home through the rain he was slowly trotting past a full church when lightning struck his rifle, completely splitting it in two pieces and sending him and his horse flying. He stumbled up unscathed and suddenly sober to check on his horse. His horse was completely fine too. He left his horse, walked into that church, and thus began one of the most famous nineteenth century relationships between God and man. Yet every day, our neighbors die indignant and begin an eternity of torment. Where is their lightning?
God has a specific plan for each one of our lives, but our stories are riddled with our attempts to get in our own way and mess things up. He takes that in stride like a jujitsu master, using our own momentum to swing us back on track. Where I stand now, I would have been standing five years ago if I kept out of God’s way. He tells us that He is the master craftsman, the man who shapes us in our mother’s womb. One thing I learned from being a carpenter is to never get in a craftsman’s way. I wish I had figured that out sooner, but at the same time, I do not.
Five and a half years ago, I picked out my favorite hockey jersey (a Jason Blake jersey in case anyone is wondering) and had my picture taken for my first ever college ID card. I was psyched. Out of my parent’s house and into the dorm of a Christian college. I had a full time job secured to help me pay for my aspirations and enough confidence and optimism to have gotten the French army to fight in World War Two. Finally I would make friends that shared my faith and passion for God. While I was preoccupied with being adequately prepared for what I considered “real life” I was completely blindsided and sacked by what many refer to as “Christian hypocrisy.” I use that term in quotes because sometimes the best way to convey a series of events is to choose a term everyone can relate to. In retrospect, I would like to point out that I do not believe there is such a thing as Christian hypocrisy. When it comes to people, there are two types; degenerates, and degenerates who, through God’s grace, try not to be to varying degrees- all failing. Anyway, instead of a safe-haven, I found that I resided in a warzone. See, at eighteen years old, I was naïve enough to believe that earth could offer anything but a warzone. (We live on a planet we sold to Satan for an apple.) I watched and experienced people mistreating each other in ways I did not think possible in the midst of a Christian community. These events I witnessed destroyed me. I resented Christians, refused to be identified with them and had no desire to go to church. On Sundays I would pack my Bible and guitar into whatever beat vehicle I was driving at the time and head to a deserted beach. I called it “the church of frank.” Many tried to invite themselves, I have no idea why. This probably seems like such a trivial issue, but it is something that I struggled with for a very long time. I could not bend my head around the fact that I worked with men who in their own words “didn’t give a damn” about religion, that loved people more than the Christians that I knew. Wasn’t the whole point of the gospel love? I left college after one semester.
The other major hurdle that I thrust into my own way was a girl. Again, I know this is seemingly trivial, but the ramifications of an event or sequence of events gets its ability to impact from the individual. I have been through many tough situations in my life, people swearing to maim me, living in my car for a few months and the list goes on, but the two biggest foes I have ever faced were Christians, and a girl. I know right, not necessarily the toughest icons. Life is entirely about who you are becoming, and although who you were and where you have been has an enormous impact on that, it is the direction that a person is taking their life that ultimately defines that individual. It is also a fact that you will become like the people that you surround yourself with. This is especially true in dating; never ever date a person unless there are many aspects about that individual that you would like to emulate. Well as emphatic as I may now sound, I had absolutely no grasp of this a few years ago. My friends used to call me “superfrank” because I would try to help people with different serious issues they were going through and eventually date them. I had some deranged superhero complex. With this girl, she was pretending to be a Christian to get to me, and I knew that, not even deep down, I just knew it. She was poised to be a horrible influence on me, another fact that I was more than aware of. Sometimes we make choices and afterwards have the luxury of looking back and understanding the implications. In this case I knew the implications while in the throes of making the decision to date her. I was on fire for God, walking to the right, she was headed off somewhere to the left in the complete opposite directions. The clarity in which I saw the situation made me angry during retrospection. Simply put, I had to choose between the attention of this girl, and continuing the walk I had with God which was starting to take a specific direction. It took me eight months of dating her to unravel my spiritual self, realize it, and end the relationship. It then took about twice that long to retrace my steps and get back to the place on that path where I walked away from God and left Him standing there to wander around in the woods.
Many people I know have eerily similar stories, almost exactly. Most people that grow up in church and head off for college never seem to find that church again, and those that do often come stumbling in scarred up and maimed. Jehovah Rapha means “the Lord heals.” God calls Himself the healer of men’s bodies, souls, and hearts. We are so lucky that He is there to put us back together piece by piece no matter how long it takes Him. He showed me that my disdain for Christians was at the very least exactly as judgmental as I accused them of being, probably worse. That was a very humbling realization, and the propellant that have my feet here today. My heart goes out for Christians, especially the ones that God calls “luke-warm.” The American church needs missionaries today, just as bad as any other part of the world, and I feel that that is where God has me headed.
I would like to urge you guys to be extremely careful of what you say and do, because it really does affect the people around you. We represent Christ wherever we go. Take Pat Robertson for example. (Explain Pat Robertson’s Comments) Secondly, be careful who you associate with. It is hard trying to fashion our lives after Christ. We should concentrate on controlling what we choose to surround ourselves with as much as possible. We are in the world, and obviously we cannot control what happens to and around us, but we must learn to master those factors that are within our grasp, like who we choose to date and hang out with. Thirdly keep your feet moving. (Hockey anology.)
Thank you all for your time and attention.
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