a calm Christian?

So I have been pondering what to write for a while. I know I want to write but it doesn't seem to come to me so I wait. Today something deep happened and I think it's time. A big reason I write this blog is for Courtney. I have a fear that something will happen to me before she is old enough to explain things to so I write to her. I keep track of special events for her, I tell her through a blog and a journal just for her about things that are exciting and things I believe and ways she is and things I love about her and our family and about the Bible and God. So, this isn't for you, or anyone really other than her and Ethan some day but maybe it will help someone else out there too.

Now living in the "Bible belt" we are always hearing radical stories from Christians. Drastic life changing things. Amazing life stories I must admit. Salvation stories that will make you cry. It's an awesome thing to be in, to hear, to see yourself with your own eyes. But what about the "calm Christian"? What about the person that wasn't headed down the worst road you could think of before God reached him/her? What about the person who's story doesn't make you cry, who's story isn't dramatic or radical? Well, I have realized first, that ANY salvation story is radical. ANY work of God is absolutely amazing. But I have also realized that it doesn't have to be radical in the eyes of our world to mean something. I was raised "Christian". We were Lutherans, we went to Church growing up (when I lived with my Dad). We prayed "now I lay me" at night when I was a child. I know my parents were believers and the same for my Grandparents. I went to a Lutheran school for a few years in elementary school, and I knew the basics of the Bible. Growing up God wasn't a huge part of my life though, and honestly, I didn't own a Bible until a pastor gave me one when I was 23. I came to Christ at 23. Yes, I always believed but I didn't accept Christ as a my savior until 23 sitting in a marriage counseling after not even a year of marriage in a Baptist church in Southern California.

Ok, so that's the preface...the point? The point is I don't have a radical story. I don't have a story that will make you cry. I wasn't on a path of no return. I don't even remember the date I was saved! But I was generally a good person. Don't get me wrong, I had issues. I had problems. I drank too much. I did things the Bible specifically says not to do. But I was a good person for the most part.  But being a good person doesn't get you to heaven. The point here is there doesn't have to be some huge, big, dramatic, amazing story for you to become a Christian. And honestly, not everyone has that story. I don't get why those are the salvation stories we always hear in church. I'd honestly love to hear some every day Joe stories. I would love to see people get saved because they realize they need it, even though they are generally a good person.

Another example? I just finished doing the Love Dave book. Now, google Love Dare and you will find all sorts of amazing stories how marriages were saved and how the book changed lives in ways you couldn't imagine. And that rocks, and I am thrilled for those people. But I had a much calmer experience. Yes, it changed me. It changed my marriage. Did it save it? No, God probably did that. But it helped and it helped me see things in a different light and that is amazing and radical. But not the worldly way. A year or two ago I probably would have read all the other comments on how it changed their world and been disappointed. But now that I have realized there are calmer Christians, I am just excited that it helped my marriage at all. Because God is at work in me in His way. Maybe one day he will work worldly radical in me, but for today, I'm happy just being a "calm Christian".