I had done the junior high in the past, but was kinda clueless. Since then I have grown in my faith and decided to stretch myself again by taking up the high school's version of FCA. Last year we met very few times because we meet at school once every five weeks, but last year it seemed that many of the times we met were on on snow days or some other time.
This year we decided to meet during those times during the school year, but also on Wednesday mornings at 7 AM. The number was one the first week, four the second week and on and on until we have 14-20 each Wednesday morning. Unfortunately for the students, I think, it has been me that has been going over our devotional each week. During the week a scripture or idea will hit me and I will quote the scripture, discuss it then show a contemporary Christian video that kinda hits home the idea behind the scripture.
How did I get here? Because I am not who I was. Here is my testimony. My maternal grandfather was, in the words of my father, a great Christian man. My mom's family attended on a regular basis at New Liberty church between Henryville and Salem IN. Frank Jones, my maternal grandfather, was a leader in that church. My father who attended the same church met my mom in that church. That was the basis of my childhood, but there were a few twists.
My father was a questioner of everything and that included his faith. He often was not given answers that were adequate to him so he stopped attending church. Because my mother did attend as a child, she would take us on Easter and Christmas...we were cultural Christians. I did attend some Sunday school, and was taught the stories of the Bible. It was boring...I didn't like it and I wasn't pushed to attend which probably created fewer problems with me and my parents.
I want to make this clear, my mom and dad have been married for 42 years, I rarely saw them argue, I never saw them fight. I did see my father show affection for my mom and me all the time. There were never any drugs or alcohol in our home. My parents were pro active in making sure that my sister and I were good people and disciplined us. But religion was never a strong priority for me growing up.I can remember through my teen years into my early 30's that I wanted to believe in God, but decided it couldn't be proven and I was, in effect, an agnostic...someone who didn't know if there were a God or not and was pretty sure that there wasn't.
Then I met my wife and with her quiet patience, I started moving in that direction. I was baptized at the age of 32 and began my current journey to where I am today; still somewhere far from where I need to be. I feel today different because I am not who I was, but I was tired of going through the motions.
I was asked to give the baccalaureate speech at our graduation, I went to Iceland where I missed my family greatly and prayer helped me get through it as well as Christian music, I taught a lesson on a Wednesday night at church, I attended a Don Meyer leadership seminar that was heavily faith based and have stayed in contact with Coach Meyer and I went to see the movie Courageous which challenges men to be good biblical fathers and husbands.
I know I am not perfect and I have pushed people away being more open about my faith. I have surrounded myself with a couple of people so that I can be held accountable for my actions. I am trying to be better in running our FCA. I hope that I am, I hope that I am helping these kids because they are all farther along in their faith than I was at their age. I hope they are getting something from what we are doing because I know I am....it is helping me more and more to understand that it isn't about me....it isn't about me.
