Turning Jordan

I was born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, on March 22, 1982.  My mom tells me that it was a rainy and dreary day when I was born, but the day after that was beautiful and sunny and warm and delightful.  Take that whatever way you’d like.  I baptized as an infant into the Episcopal Church, but never really attended any kind of church services.  I do remember going to Sunday school at a church near my house as a kid, but it was only for a few weeks.  Most of childhood revolved around sports, though, and I loved it!  I pretty much played everything – soccer in the fall, baseball in the spring and summer, basketball in the winter, and football for one season.  I hated organized football – I was no good at it.  Put me on a pick-up football field and I’ll play all day and do well, but throw pads and a helmet on me and I’m worthless.  Soccer was my main sport, followed by baseball.  I excelled in these – and really liked playing them.  I played soccer throughout high school and baseball until my freshmen year of high school.

I grew up in the South Hills of Pittsburgh, in a suburb called Bethel Park.  It’s fairly large for a suburb from what I understand.  I got a public education and turned out pretty well.  I never really had any aspirations as far as a career was concerned.  In fact, I can’t even remember saying that I wanted to be anything in particular when I grew up.  I probably did, every kid does.  I do know that when I was accepted at Virginia Tech for college that I wanted to be an engineer – as I was always good at math and science.  The big changes and defining moments of my life happened in college.  The main one of those was becoming a Christian.  So, let’s go there next.

I came to believe in Jesus Christ somewhere in between my senior year of high school and my first semester at Virginia Tech.  Growing up, I was never faced with any tough questions about religion.  I don’t ever remember being against the concept of God, but never really thought much about His existence or anything having to do with Him, for that matter.  I think I probably believed in the existence of God.  I remember always being ignorant of religion.  I grew up with a Roman Catholic background, but I never remember understanding what that meant or even who Jesus Christ really was.

In my senior year of high school a lot of changes took place.  First, I was infatuated with the girl I was dating.  Looking back on it, we were far too intimate, but, that’s the way it was.  Second, I had my mind on doing what I pleased.  Being a senior, I felt as if I was the king of my own universe.  Everything seemed to be going right.  I applied early to Virginia Tech and Penn State, was accepted to both, and decided on VT; I was for the first time well-received in a group of people; I had a long-term relationship with high hopes for the future; my parents supported me; all was well.  And then for some reason I decided to attend a Campus Life youth group meeting.  For the first time I was introduced to Christianity.  I don’t remember much from that night, to be honest.  What I do remember is that everything that was said made sense, and that I had to really start thinking about this whole “Jesus” thing.  I do remember praying with everyone else that night about the gospel and that an invitation was offered in the prayer to receive Christ.  If I remember right, I prayed everything, but I don’t think I really understood what was happening.  God knew though, and it was that night when He really began prodding my heart with that grace so irresistible.  It must have been that night when I first became aware of His influence in my life, and since then, it seems like He has never stopped communicating with me.  Over the next year of my life, nearly everything changed.  God worked a wonderful miracle within my heart, creating me new and washing me clean in Christ.  What an impossible thing now that I think back on it.

As I think back on those days, the main factors that initially drew me to Christianity were two-fold.  On the one hand, Christianity (if it really was true) just seemed to make sense of the world; and on the other hand, there was joy and a strange allurement to the person of Jesus Christ.  As a senior in high school, I was trying to figure out what life was all about and experimented in different areas of self-identity, love, pleasure, and virtue.  That year of my life was a full of competing thoughts and practice, youth group on Thursdays and partying on the weekends.  The funny thing is, when I look back on those days, I remember looking at the world differently, with a new outlook.  If I was a Christian then, I didn’t give my allegiance to Jesus yet, and wasn’t fully convinced that I would forsake all for Him.  In college, however, all of that changed with allurement and joy.

As a freshman at Virginia Tech I didn’t have a clue about anything.  After spending the morning of my first day there weeping because I had to say goodbye to all that I once knew, I spent my first afternoon in my dorm room with the door open, playing Dave Matthews on my guitar just hoping that someone might stop in and say hello.  Hours went by, and I was still alone.  I did have a few friends from high school that also attended VT, though, and began to meet new people.  My friends from home and I decided that we still wanted to have a youth-group-type atmosphere around us.  So we went to a few different group meetings, eventually deciding on Campus Crusade for Christ, or Cru as it began to be called.  For the first few weeks of school I continued to go to frat parties, becoming less interested in each visit.  To be honest, the reason why is life seemed boring and fake there.  I was tired of wearing a mask; I was tired of putting on a show and being empty.  All my effort went into impressing people and trying to find a girl to fool around with.  It all seemed so shallow and unimpressive, and I think this was a major turning point into accepting Christianity fully.

I continued with Cru for a while, got involved in a small group Bible study, and signed up to go to the Fall Retreat they were sponsoring.  It was there that I came to the conclusion that I needed to either get serious about Christianity, or leave it behind and pursue something else.  It really wasn’t a decision to make, all that was within me was crying out to God and I knew it.  So I took my stand there and became a Christian.  The next month or so was most interesting.  I would read my Bible in the top bunk while my roommate would smoke marijuana on the bottom bunk.  I decided that this probably wasn’t the best environment to begin my relationship with Christ in, so at semester break I moved in with a good friend Mark.  It was there that I put shoes on my new relationship with Christ.  I made some important hard decisions that would ultimately free up my life to wherever God might take me.

Long story short, I am here.  I am persuaded to believe in Christ because of many reasons: religious experience being the strongest.  But underlying that experience is the authority source of God’s Word, the Bible, both Old and New Testaments, and my reason, which can make sense of the world by looking through the lens of the Christian worldview.  By faith, I hope in Jesus’ blood, that it covers my offenses against God.  The Bible tells me that He died on the cross according to the Scriptures (the Old Testament, which described his suffering in detail at least 500 years before he was born), rose from the dead according to the Scriptures, and will return in the clouds in His majestic glory as the King of all to inaugurate His kingdom and judge the living and the dead.  I am banking everything I have on these truths.  We will all live forever, and through Christ I am promised to have fellowship with God for all of eternity.  After surveying other religions and philosophies, Christianity is the only one that I have found to be true.

I can do my best to offer you any advice or answer any questions you might have.  For now, I hope you get a better picture of who I am and what I am living for.  The Christian faith is reasonable and convincing.  It has satisfied the deep longings of my heart, though following Christ is not easy.  Christ asks men to be introspective, to desire him and his renown over self-interests and pleasures.  And though the call of Christ may become wearisome and tiring, Jesus promises to take our burdens and yoke with us to make joy and life possible.

If you have any leaning or interest in becoming a follower and student of Jesus Christ, that is His Spirit at work within you.  If such is the case, please get a copy of the Bible and start reading the story about how God has been at work in the world.  I recommend taking the time to read through the Four Gospels (Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John).  What you believe about God and His Son Jesus Christ is of grave consequence for all of eternity.  I’m not asking you to make a hasty decision to follow Jesus, but to read what the Bible really has to say.  I believe that your decision about Christianity is the most important decision you have to make in your entire life.  If what Jesus claims is true, please choose him today, before it’s too late and you are unable to!