This was an unusual weekend. I decided to drive by Tanyard Creek to see if anyone from Village Bible Church was handing out Bible tracts. I had joined two other church members in this evangelical effort last weekend—something way out of my comfort zone—but something I found to be unusually rewarding. If the team needed reinforcements, I was willing to help.
Arriving at Tanyard Creek, I was disappointed that no one was there. It was earlier than they normally start, so I headed home to knock out a few items on my to-do list. Time got away from me, and it was mid-afternoon before I gave the evangelical effort further thought.
The next morning, I was eager to go to church. I attend the 9 AM service. We also have a 10:30 service. As I turned the corner to enter the parking lot, there wasn’t a single car. I drove around the church, not a single person. Maybe there had been a power failure and I had missed the announcement, but there wasn’t even a note on the door. Momentarily, there was that sickening thought: The rapture happened, and I missed it. That’s the second time in the last few months that that thought came to me. Is God trying to tell me something?
Anyway, it finally dawned on me that I had been one day off starting with Friday; It was not Sunday, but Saturday. OK! I admit it, I’m getting old, but this turned out to be a fortuitous chronological hiccup. Tanyard Creek was on the way home. Entering the parking lot, I saw Mark Underwood. It turned out he was alone, so he welcomed my help.
Being a scientist and well-versed in the Bible, Mark is well-equipped to present the Gospel. He also has a wonderful approach to evangelism that can be used by anyone who loves the Lord. He starts with a friendly greeting in which he first gives his name and then says he is there to talk with people about their ideas about God. “Who is God to you?”
As I listened, his question elicited interesting responses: “My Father in Heaven,” “The Creator,” “Father, Son, and Holy Ghost combined,” and other straight-from-the-Bible responses. One woman offered a simple “I like Him.” A young man said, “He is my mentor.” One woman said she is a Christian and returned to let us listen to a lovely song she had found on TicToc: “Flowers” by Samantha Ebert.
Two Sisters from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints stopped by and shared their ideas about Jesus with us, as did three men with Rugged Faith Ministries, a group that offers “Adventure with a Purpose.”
One of the most interesting visitors was a young man who called himself “a low-watt atheist” Mark took that comment to mean that “the young man felt he was stumbling in the dark without enough light to see clearly (thus “low-watt”) to believe in God.” Mark said he was especially glad when he returned from his hike—”He came up to us intentionally—to thank us again for the conversation and to say that he would be thinking more about what we talked about. It’s great when the people come up to us instead of the other way around.”
Mark added, “I will certainly pray for God to continue to work in that young man’s life to draw him back to faith in Him.”
The young man didn’t recommit his life to Christ, but he left with quite a bit to think about, as did I.
When was the last time you pondered the question, “Who is God to me?” We go to church. We pray. We tithe and try to love others as Jesus commanded, but how well do we know our God? As I stood listening to Mark, I found it difficult to put together in my mind a clear-cut answer to the question, Who is God to me?
For me, it is not a problem of too little faith, it is a problem of too much faith. It’s easy for me to believe the biblical descriptions of God because words like Father, shepherd, healer, guardian, comforter, master, teacher—even Lord are things I can see, feel, or touch, but God is so much more than all these combined. He’s hard to wrap our minds around.
Who is God to me? I am still working on that one. I’m sure it’s been said before, “A god small enough to define is simply too small to be God.”
Because He Loves Us Press 