Lassin 2011

A calling to serve the Lord by helping a village to rebuild their church building and minister to the children.

Wednesday, March 9, 2011

Personal Testimony

In preparation for the upcoming trip, we're asked to write out our Personal Testimony describing our walk with Christ.  Your faith isn't quite crystallized in your mind until you're forced to articulate it on paper.  Here's what I wrote:

I was brought up as a Buddhist.  Like many Chinese, our practice included traces of Taoism and ancestor worship.  I know this because, in college, I sought to better understand what I truly believed.  Through self-study, I read what I could on various forms of Buddhism along with other religions.  The more I read, the more I hungered.  I never felt quite content with what I’d learned.  But teachings on shunning this material world always appealed to me.

Many years later, at my first full-time job, I met the woman whom I’d marry.  She carried herself with grace and kindness.  More than all of her beauty, what attracted me most was her peace.  Over time, I learned that the source her strength and comfort was her faith – knowing Jesus and knowing that He’s always there to sustain her.  I listened with an open mind and even attended church services with her.  By then, she knew that I had to find my own way without any external pressures.

One day, while vacationing, I was introduced to C.S. Lewis.  While better known for his Chronicles of Narnia, C.S. Lewis had chronicled through many books and essays his journey to and as a Christian.  For many years, he’d been agnostic.  For years, he’d resisted and questioned only to find that the truths taught by Jesus were undeniable.  However, like a teenager coming of age, I wouldn’t take his word for it.  I searched on my own.  I found others who’d gone through similar journeys.  Josh McDowell was an agnostic in college and planned to write a paper challenging the historical authenticity of Christianity.  By the end of the term, he’d become a Christian himself.  Lee Strobel had been an atheist legal journalist.  In his book, “The Case for Christ,” he documents his interviews of scholars eventually arriving at the conclusion that, “it would require more faith for [him] to maintain [his] atheism than to embrace Jesus as being God's unique Son!”  Through these writings and through my wife’s example, I came to accept that Jesus is God’s son, that He came to die for our sins, and that by accepting Him I would come to find joy and peace.

I still search.  Whereas before, my search had no destination in mind, I now search with my heart and mind pointed to God.  When you love someone, you want to spend more time with them and know everything about them.  With Jesus, it’s no different.  When you love someone, you want to do everything you can to please him.  With Jesus, it’s no different.  When you love someone, you want everyone around you to know.  With Jesus, it’s no different.

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