Unveiling Grace by Wilder Lynn K

Author:Wilder, Lynn K. [Wilder, Lynn K.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Zondervan
Published: 2013-08-19T16:00:00+00:00

Part Three

STARTING OVER

CHAPTER 15

THE EXTRICATION

Ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you mad.

— ALDOUS HUXLEY

D escribing this moment as a sudden sweep across the event horizon may sound a bit dramatic. Honestly, I’m not sure what happened—I’m no theologian—but looking back, it seems that the point of surrender was the beginning of a shift in perspective. I finally understood enough truth to discern I could never go back. But I wasn’t sure precisely where I was headed.

In the weeks following my choice to follow the Jesus of the Bible—what most Christians call conversion—not a lot changed in my life outwardly.

I continued to teach and research at BYU, on target to becoming full professor. I was now a managing editor for a professional journal. Mike lived life as usual. Katie settled into her senior year in high school. After graduating from the University of Utah in 2006, Josh got a great job in Salt Lake, bought a townhouse, and took Kisa to live with him. Because the family was questioning its faith, he now felt free to question his, and he put on hold his plan to be reunited with his temple ordinances. His LDS girlfriend moved on to find someone else to marry in a temple. And our newly married sons continued to work at the Edgewater Hotel in Florida.

Though my outer circumstances hadn’t changed much, my inner life changed every day. Michael and I were studying the Bible and attending both LDS and evangelical services. Katie eagerly joined us. We settled into the Sunday routine of attending the three-hour block of LDS services and then sprinting by car to an evangelical church by 11:00 a.m. for another hour plus. There were no Christian churches in Alpine, our town of about nine thousand people. Not one. So we got brave enough to attend one we found closer than the church we’d attended sporatically last summer two hours away, a congregation of about thirty on-fire believers fifteen minutes away. There we were introduced to people worshiping God with guitars, vocals, keyboard, and drums — in church! Mormonism allows only the piano and organ with an occasional vocal, and perhaps, with permission, a stringed instrument. Brass and percussion are verboten.

The strangest thing began to occur in that evangelical church. Whatever questions my Bible readings had stirred up that week, Pastor Jim answered in his teaching. I kept thinking it was just coincidence, but it happened week after week. Personal attention from God was awesome!

Christians told me I needed a “birthday,” a date when I knew I was saved. Honestly, I didn’t know what day in October I crossed over. I didn’t know if I fit the mold of mainstream Christianity. All I knew was, I wanted Jesus and I met him in the Bible, so whatever those two things brought into my life, I would accept — no more and no less.

The month of my conversion, October, Matt’s wife, Nicole, developed serious blood clots in her legs, lungs, and pelvis.

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