My Not-So-Radical Redemption Story

[The Midweek Encounter is a ministry of Encounter Church in Kentwood, MI. These posts are reflections on Sunday's message, which can be heard here each week: http://myencounterchurch.org/#/messages-media]

As I reflected on the message this week, Unqualified: Not Important Enough, I struggled to think of an engaging anecdote to share in the Midweek Encounter. My faith journey has been relatively uneventful, and this lack of radical life-changing testimony often makes me feel unqualified to share my story. I began to wonder, could God really redeem my “boring” faith journey and use it for His glory? And that’s when it hit me—even though I might not have the credibility of a radical transformation like Paul or Mary Magdalene, God still sent His Son to die for me. Even though my faith has been steady, I am still broken, lost, and in need of redemption. And rather than fearing that my story isn’t exciting enough, I want to share how God has been redeeming my story for His glory in the midst of a rather normal life.

I grew up knowing about Jesus’s death and resurrection, and I knew that I was a Christian at a young age. It didn’t take long for me to confess my faith in 8^th grade and publicly commit my life to Christ. I attended a Christian high school and surrounded myself with Bible stories, encouraging teachers, and constant reminders of my faith. I fell in love (or so I thought at the time) with a young man who was raised with the same commitment to faith as I was, and that’s when temptation kicked in.

In spite of our commitments to Christ, we fell into sexual sin. And that sin grabbed hold of my heart, convincing me that I was only whole and complete when I was with this young man. We dated off and on for a few years, constantly struggling to justify our sins by the love that we shared; eventually our relationship fell apart, and I was left broken. My identity had been torn to shreds, and I found myself a freshman in college, desperately searching for something that could make me whole again.

What I didn’t realize at the time was that God had been walking alongside me every step of the way. He had bigger plans for me than I ever could have imagined: I spent the summer working at a Christian camp in Colorado. If you know me, you know that hiking, living in a cabin, and showering with giant moths is definitely not my thing. But that’s where God called me for a summer and truly captured my heart again; He made me realize that I was only complete when I surrendered my heart to Him. He even gave me the strength to climb a mountain—literally!

When I returned home, I was renewed, but still had no idea quite what God had in store for me. That next spring, I began to date the man who is now my husband; we had been friends in high school and reconnected by chance (although things are never quite by chance with God). Ben showed me the kind of love that Christ had intended for a man and a woman to share; I couldn’t even believe that God had chosen such a generous, selfless, genuine, humble, hardworking, and loving man to be my husband.

August's baptism at Encounter on September 18, 2016

Fast-forward about three years, and God blessed us with our baby boy, August James. This part of the journey is just beginning, but I now know that God redeemed my heart to him so that I could love my husband and my son through the eyes of Christ. He truly is the Author of my story, one that might be fairly typical, but also one that ultimately drew me closer to Him. That’s the power of redemption—God can use anyone and anything for His purpose and His glory. Just as he used Mary Magdalene to share the news of Jesus’s resurrection, He also takes unqualified people and redeems them to shine love and light into the world—all for His glory!

How is God redeeming your story so that you might be a witness for the Gospel? Is he using your "ordinary" life to bring others into His kingdom? Pray that you might see how God is making you qualified to share the ultimate redemption story of Jesus Christ's death and resurrection.

Colossians 1:13-14, “For he has rescued us from the dominion of darkness and brought us into the kingdom of the Son he loves, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins."

[Megan Stephenson is a proud new mom to her almost four-month-old son August and spends her days trying to figure out how to take care of her tiny human. She also works for a private education group in Grand Rapids as an Assistant Registrar. Megan loves spending time with her husband, Ben, trying out new breweries, restaurants, and local attractions. She also self-identifies as a crazy cat lady, despite owning no cats of her own, thanks to her loving and allergic husband.]

Why God is Better Than Oprah

[The Midweek Encounter is a ministry of Encounter Church in Kentwood, MI. These posts are reflections on Sunday's message, which can be heard here each week: http://myencounterchurch.org/#/messages-media]

I’ve sometimes wondered what it would be like to win a massive giveaway, like the kind TV shows do. One of the most iconic giveaways is when Oprah Winfrey gave everyone in the audience their own brand new car, shouting “You get a car, you get a car, you get a car, everybody gets a car!” Recently, John Oliver bought and then forgave almost $15 million of medical debt on his show Last Week Tonight, breaking the formerly Oprah-owned record of World’s Largest On-Air Giveaway. While I don’t know the details of how the attendees for Oprah’s show were picked, I’d guess it wasn’t through a carefully vetted process to make sure each person there had a perfect driving record and could be trusted to take excellent care of the car they were given. From what I can tell, John Oliver and his team didn’t know anything about the people whose medical debt they forgave, whether they were kind and trustworthy people who would appreciate the gift. 

Photo Credit: Hans M

When Jesus picked his disciples, his process was rather unorthodox as well. Instead of scholars or students of religion, he picked ordinary people like a tax collector and fishermen like Peter. These disciples followed Jesus for his three years of ministry on earth.  Traveling together that long, it only seems natural that it became more than just students learning from their Lord and teacher, but friends. Peter, one of those ordinary fishermen, was committed to Jesus, dedicated to sticking with him no matter what happened, and Peter told Jesus as much. It can’t have been completely easy being a disciple though. Many people, especially the religious leaders, didn’t like Jesus much. As his arrest, trial, and eventual crucifixion drew nearer, Peter’s dedication was going to be put to the test.

When Jesus was taken away for trial, Peter began separating himself from the crowd by following at a distance. Had something changed so quickly, and Peter now doubted the true identity of this man he had been following for years? Unlikely. But all of a sudden, associating closely with Jesus would come with a higher cost attached to it than anything Peter had experienced before. To know Jesus was to be consorting with a suspected criminal. When the first person recognized Peter, he backed away from Jesus again, closer to the exit for a quick escape. Yet two more people questioned him, and finally, Peter couldn't handle it anymore, swearing adamantly that he did not know Jesus. Almost immediately, he recognized the severity of what he had done. What kind of sinking, gnawing, pain must that have been, to realize he had denounced his Lord and friend? 

Maybe we don't go so far as to completely renounce knowing Jesus, at least through our words, but if we were to examine our thoughts and actions for the past weeks and months, I suspect we'd find times when we might as well have renounced him. Often following Jesus looks like knowing what we’re supposed to do, but consciously choosing to ignore it or actively making another decision when we find ourselves in the heat of the moment. Realization of our wrongness may strike instantly, or may settle in over time as we think more about what we’ve done. As that happens, it can feel like we’ve disqualified ourselves from loving and serving God. Would he even want us after we’ve messed up so badly? 

God doesn’t work like humans do though. When we hurt our human friends, they may not be so quick to forgive us, but Jesus, fully human and fully God, gave Peter a gift greater than any TV show offering could ever be. Earlier on in his ministry, Jesus tells Peter, “And I tell you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of Hades will not overcome it” (Matthew 16:18). Even after Peter denied Jesus three times, Jesus knew Peter was so much more than his mistake. God never wants to leave us in our mess, but to redeem it. After the resurrection, Jesus asks Peter three times to feed his sheep, and the rest of Peter’s life became an outworking of that as Peter went on to become one of the most instrumental figures in the early church. It was the grace of a second chance, and it completely changed Peter’s life. 

The gift God has given us is worth more than a brand new car or the forgiveness of all our financial debts. He endlessly says to us, “You get a second chance, you get a second chance, you get a second chance!” His second chances never run out, he never gets tired of us and casts us away from him, he never holds our past against us. God still offers the same kind of second chances to us. We are never “so far gone” that God can’t break in and redeem our choices and our circumstances to turn them into something much more beautiful than we could have imagined. 

[Brianna DeWitt believes in Jesus, surrounding yourself with good people, and that desserts are best when they involve chocolate and peanut butter. She writes about faith, growing up, and whatever else pops into her head on her own blog, and tweets (largely about food) at @bwitt722.]

Nothing Left to Give

[The Midweek Encounter is a ministry of Encounter Church in Kentwood, MI. These posts are reflections on Sunday's message, which can be heard here each week: http://myencounterchurch.org/#/messages-media]

All the others gave what they’ll never miss; she gave extravagantly what she couldn’t afford-she gave her all. -  Mark 12:44 (The Message)

What a scene it must have been that day in the temple! The air would have been thick with the scent of all of the people gathered in the Court of the Women and the loud clangs of coins being dumped into the treasury chests. Add to that the buzz around Jesus’ recent arrival in Jerusalem, the excitement and anxiety over the scene he caused turning over tables in the Court of Gentiles, and the whispers of assassination attempts and you’ve got one heck of a set-up for the arrival of the poor widow and her two small copper coins.

As I read the text and studied my notes in preparation for writing this, I couldn’t help but be drawn into details like these and wonder about the background of the story. What happened in this woman’s life that left her with next to nothing to give? Why did she even bother to show up on this scene? What was her story?

Interestingly enough, in the verses directly before we encounter this particular widow, Mark shares with us another story about widows. In verses 38-40 he recalls a time when Jesus warned, “Watch out for the experts in the law. They like walking around in long robes and elaborate greetings in the marketplaces, and the best seats in the synagogues and the places of honor at banquets. They devour widows’ property, and as a show make long prayers. These men will receive a more severe punishment.” Mark then launches into our story about Jesus seeing the significance of widow’s sacrifice in comparison to the offerings made by others, including by those we can assume were experts of the law.

It strikes me that here we have two stories of widows: one that tells us the religious leaders were “devouring” the property of widows and one that tells of a widow giving away all she had left. In the original Greek, this word for “devour” in the first story gets at the all-consuming nature of the removal and ruin inflicted upon these widows. Was the women with the coins one of these widows who had her property devoured by religious leaders? If so, what must it have been like for her to walk into the presence and onto the turf of the religious institution that left her in ruin? Did she recognize some of the faces and robes and elaborate greetings of the leaders who were there? Did they recognize her?

It also strikes me that this thing we call the church is still far from a perfect place. It's well known that the people of God have a history of devouring more than just property. There are countless people who, like the widows Mark tells us about, carry stories about the actions of a church leader, a family member, or entire institutions who, in the name of God, “devoured” them emotionally, monetarily, spiritually, psychologically, and physically. And, like the widows Mark mentions, many of us are left to live with the wreckage left behind.

Yet somehow this particular widow in Mark’s story will not allow herself to merely live in the wreckage. She brings everything she has left and gives it to the very cause of the people who left her in ruins. She refuses to allow their actions to deem her “unqualified” to continue to be a part of the community. She doesn’t allow them to define how and if she gets to contribute to the on-going work of the people of God.

I don’t know what this means for those who have fallen prey to those who devour in the name of God. I don’t know what this means for all of the people who have been faithful for years yet feel abandoned or left hopeless by tragedy or unfulfilled promises. I squirm when I think about what the call to “sacrifice” means to those to who have already lost everything. Didn’t Jesus say somewhere that he came so that we could have life to the fullest? And if so, why do we have to sacrifice anything at all? How can God allow us to suffer ruin at all, let alone at the hands of those who profess his name, and then have the nerve to call us to give up all that we have left? “The greatest gifts are given when you have the least”? That’s a hard sell when you've been left with nothing!  

Photo credit: Flickr user Lilmonster Michi

All I know is that we are all part of a long line of widows who face different kinds of devouring in our lives. And at some point we all find ourselves feeling like we have nothing left to give. In those moments, stories like the one of the widow giving to God everything she had left seem absurd. But maybe the hope is that in this story we get this: a picture of Jesus sitting with his disciplines during one of the most intense and agitated weeks of his ministry, peering out over hundreds of people in that smelly, noisy, and crowded courtyard, and picking out the lonely widow walking through the crowd. He knows what has happened when she, in the presence of those who have brought her pain, offers up everything she has left. He sees her and knows the value and depth of her loss and her sacrifice. And he sees and knows the value and depth of our loss and our sacrifice today.

Just as Jesus saw the widow through the crowd and recognized the depth of her loss and sacrifice, know that God will see, know, and be there for you, especially when you feel you have nothing left to give. 

[Derek Atkins is a project coordinator at the denominational office of the Christian Reformed Church in North America. He and his wife Keri live in Alger Heights and spend most of their time trying to keep up with their two little girls, Alida and Cassidy.]