Faith Proved Genuine
Being on the outreach team in Santa Cruz has been one of the biggest blessings so far here on Summer Project. Getting to plan, lead, and taking part in all kinds of different outreaches throughout the city has definitely been a learning experience. Not only am I learning how to share Christ with others in the power of His Spirit, but I am also being slammed in the face by the proverbial tsunami of brokenness from the people here. You can see a want for God around every turn, but equally present are god-replacements and spiritual band aids. It’s a very spiritual place, but it’s a place lacking in truth.
But from the many outreaches we’ve done and from the times I
have just gone out into the city to share Christ on my own or with my discipler (Charles Itschner-He’s the man!), I have had a good number of conversations
with people that have left me thinking (as I hope it has done the same for
them). This post is I response to one of them.
My discipler and I went down to the wharf with the intent on
talking to someone with the hope of sharing Christ with them. We stumbled upon
(or rather God had us trip over) a fisherman named Victor. He was originally
from the Ukraine but now currently lives in Sacramento and was in Santa Cruz
visiting for the day. The conversation progressed and he eventually asked where
we were from and why we were here, which allowed us to explain Campus Crusade
(or CRU) and the purpose of our summer project. We asked if he wouldn’t mind
talking to us for a little while about his beliefs as we were trying to get a
better grasp of the spiritual climate in Santa Cruz. (I promise this sounded
much less “Mormon-ish” in the moment) He agreed telling us that he was a
Christian as well, having been raised in a Christian home. One of the questions
Charles asked was, “If someone were to ask you how to become a Christian, what
would you tell them?” To this Victor really didn’t have an answer. He mentioned
that he had kind of inherited it from his parents, being raised in the church.
He said that he could tell them the typical answers like belief in Jesus, but
that just sounded kind of corny. (We live in a time among a church who often
believes the truth is too corny to share – I could go on about this, but
that’ll have to be another post for another day) So Charles and I proceeded to
share and explain the Gospel to this man, with the hope of teaching how to
better share his faith as well as giving him a clear understanding about who
Christ really is. Throughout the entire conversation, Victor seemed really interested,
despite the whipping wind on the wharf. Afterward his tone changed and the way
he spoke to us shifted to a more serious a more honest voice. When we asked how
we could be praying for him, he answered,
“In a world where so many people fake their faith, I worry
about the genuineness of my own.”
And it’s that statement that really stuck with me from that
conversation. We continued to talk with him, and we prayed over him, but I left
with those words echoing through my head.
It’s a valid concern, truly. We live in a country where
“Christian” seems to be the default status, where churches are often filled
with people going out of obligation and appearance rather than any desire to
know God more – Churches where lies are often sung as bookends to a sermon that
people are just trying to bear through while wearing clothes too tight and
binding all the while focusing instead on the best way to beat the traffic to a
filling Sunday lunch. Genuineness is seldom seen and a noble thing to search
and hope for. But how can we find it? How do we know what we have is real, and
we aren’t just like all the other fakers out there? How do we keep it?
These are questions that rocked my Christian walk. Over and
over I found myself praying the “sinner’s prayer” because after examining my
life it didn’t look like I really meant it the last time. I kept messing up too
badly and too often. “Real Christians” didn’t act like me. So as Victor’s words
brought me back to that time in my life, I tried to remember how I had answered
it. The answer, I remembered, was faith.
We find genuine faith in Christ, and we know that it is real
because we trust in Him to keep it, to keep us. The thing I didn’t realize
growing up was that my faith wasn’t mine to maintain by doing all these works
to keep God happy and impressed with me. My faith was His to hold and pour into
me. That’s how grace works. There was nothing I could have done to earn God,
and there is nothing I can do to lose Him. I am simply His, forever. Trusting
in that truth is how you begin to walk. Just like a new born learning to walk,
you can do nothing on your own without your Father lovingly holding you up, and
yes you fall and stumble, but your Father doesn’t scold you; He picks you back
up and encourages you, helping you forward. But this is how it stays forever.
It’s not that the more mature you become in your walk, your legs get stronger
and you learn to hold yourself up. The more mature you get, the more you
understand that you’ll never be able to hold yourself up alone, and the more
you lean into the Father’s hand.
So please be praying for Victor as God shows him this, and
continue praying for me as I am still learning and often trying to stand on my
own.
