From atheist to disgustingly religious

Saying for the Day: Its's not what you know but who that really counts.

Its back to the artifact box and here we find one of those little books people sign at the end of camp. It is there to remind me of the end of my time as an atheist and the beginning of the journey that would bring me into the ministry.

The summer after I got confirmed one of my friends from confirmation talked me into going to Bible Camp.
His name was Karl Rundman .He was not religious and the reason he felt we should go to Bible camp was because there were five girls there for every boy.Those are great odds. I figured I could put up with the religious nonsense for a chance for romance. The way Karl described it we would swim with the girls, sit with them at evening campfires, and take evening walks to the baseball field.

So I went. The program was about as dull as I expected it to be.

But there was a Pastor.
An old Pastor who was different.

He didn't talk about God as an idea.

He didn't try to prove God.

He shared with us a God that was and had been for years a personal friend. This God was as real to him as the campers. I marveled at that.

There was a joy and a peace the guy had I had never seen in anybody.

I wanted what he had.

I told myself over and over that it was silly.
There is no God and so God can't be his friend.
He can't know what isn't there.

But he did. He honestly loved God.

Then something happened which I can not explain. At some point during that week I stepped over the line and went from being an atheist to being disgustingly religious.

I didn't want it to happen.
I did everything I could to keep it from happening .

I have no idea why it happened. (Boy I wish I did)
Lots of kids left that camp just the way they came but I didn't.

Karl Rundman did . He ran into God later in his journey.

Suddenly there was a joy and a peace in my life beyond anything I had ever known. God was real and He loved me.

I still had no answer to Robert's death.
But I did know that God had entered into our suffering and shared it with us.

Everything changed. I came home a different person.

My mother was horrified.
She hoped it would wear off.

But God was no longer an idea to be accepted or rejected.
God was a being that loved me and the journey to the pulpit had begun.