Because several of the parents on the soccer team had already come to faith and had told him what our church service was like, David and his family started attending. This led to much more sideline chatting about messages, and jokes about God and religion, but also increasingly real conversation among this group of soccer moms and dads. David was learning about the way of Jesus with his family, and his eyes were opening to God’s goodness.
When David and Trina hosted the team at their house for one end-of-the-year soccer party, I noticed a tap coming out of the refrigerator. David let me know unashamedly that he liked his beer … a lot! It was his one vice.
I asked David, “So where are you at with God?” He said, “I think I believe in God now, I’m just not sure about Jesus.” I asked if he’d be up for a breakfast conversation about it, and he said, “Sure.” At breakfast, I asked what it was about Jesus that tripped him up. He just didn’t understand why you had to believe Jesus was more than just a good teacher. I told David that God created him to do life in loving relationship with God and others, and I explained why Jesus not only showed God’s character in a form we could comprehend, but also paid to make a way for anyone to turn back to God and be forgiven. I challenged David to read Scripture and begin to openly pray for God to reveal himself, but on God’s terms.
A year later, I heard he’d been promoted to national sales manager of a company moving him to New Jersey, so I requested one last lunch. I said, “So, David, we haven’t talked about faith in a while. Where are you at with Jesus?”
His words dropped my jaw. “I’m in” was all he said. “You’re in?”
“Yeah, I’m in, man! You know, after our last meeting I started thinking about what you said, and then I did that Soul Revolution experiment with the church and started realizing that God’s been trying to get my attention for a long time. He’s been giving me all these good gifts, blessings, jobs, a wonderful family, but I just didn’t realize it was God. I wasn’t being thankful, so I started being thankful, and at the same time Trina and I both decided to get in shape and stop drinking, and I guess somewhere along the way enough of my struggles got answered.”
“So you believe Jesus was the Son of God?” “Yep.”
