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No shame in Jesus Christ
by Will Baker
I grew up in
central Florida, a little town called Winter Haven, right next to Lakeland.
We used to have the Boston Red Sox and they left. We used to have the
Cleveland Indians and they left. So I’m afraid I might be responsible for
the Richmond Braves leaving Richmond.
I went to a small
school in Deland, Florida, right next to Daytona Beach, Stetson University,
where I got a BS in Sociology in preparation for the ministry.
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There was a
time in my life when Christ wasn’t a part of my life, when I wasn’t
a Christian and I wasn’t trusting in Christ.
When I was a
young adult I went to a Mardi Gras festival in a little town near
where I grew up. I had far too much to drink – shouldn’t have been
drinking in the first place. And as I was driving home, which I
shouldn’t have been doing either, I was so drunk that I passed out
at the wheel and the car went into a ditch. It’s a miracle that
nobody died. It’s a miracle that I didn’t hurt anybody. |
You see, I confessed with
my lips, but
didn't believe in my heart. |
The police found me
unconscious at the wheel. They took me away, arrested me, charged me with a
DUI.
I was seventeen at
the time, I was still a juvenile so my parents had to take me to court. And
my father was an attorney… still is an attorney, in that small town. I
remember the shame of going and standing before that judge and that judge
looking and saying, “Steve, what are you doing here? Who’s this you’re with?
Are you representing this kid?” “No, your honor, this is my son.” And the
judge talked about what an upstanding man my father was in the court and
what shame I had brought to him, my family.
So I thought about
that. And I thought about the idea that there is no shame in Christ, and how
things might have been different if I had had Christ in my life at that
point.
The biggest shame of
that story is that if you had asked me if I was a Christian I would have
told you that I was. I was a cultural Christian. I went to church, but it
didn’t really mean anything to me. There was a movie that recently came out,
“Walk the Line.” It’s the biography of Johnny Cash. And in it there’s
a scene where he goes and he starts playing the gospel -- he’s trying to
sell his songs to a record company – and the man he’s trying to sell his
songs to says, “That’s gospel. I can’t sell that.” And Johnny thinks that
he’s questioning his Christianity so he says, “What, you don’t believe I’m
Christian?” And then, he’s going to beat a guy up for questioning his
Christianity. That’s who I was. I would tell you that I was a Christian and
if you questioned, I’d beat you up.
You see, I confessed
with my lips but I didn’t believe in my heart. And that’s the essence of
what it is to be Christian.
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I mess up all the time. But I know that God saved me. |
When I was
twenty-one, I was in college and hadn’t changed my ways. I had
learned nothing from my experiences before. I learned nothing from
that DUI, nothing from the shame that I brought on my family because
I took no time to reflect and I didn’t listen to the words that
Christ was telling me. And so I was kicked out of college. And after
I was kicked out of college I ended up going back home and taking a
job working in a factory, pulling a production line, ten hours a
day. And during that time Christ came into my life through the
people around me and I accepted Christ into my heart and I came to
understand what it meant to believe Christ and to truly have him in
my heart. And that made all the difference in the world. |
While I was working in
that factory, just out of nowhere the associate pastor of the church that I
was attending asked me to help with their youth program. I don’t know why
she did that. But I think God led her to do it. And it was during that time
that I came to realize that I couldn’t do anything else. I tried to do a few
other things, but working with people and sharing the love of Christ was the
only thing that I found any meaning in. And that was God working in my life.
Romans 10:15 says,
“how beautiful are the feet of those who bring the good news.” I think
that’s a verse about humility. It’s a verse that speaks to me about being
humble enough to recognize that the way that God has primarily worked in my
life is through the people around me, through that minister who encouraged
me to help the youth out at that church, through Lynn Turner and all of you
who gave me a chance here at First Baptist Church, through all of you who
have been encouraging to me. And so that would be my encouragement to you.
It hasn’t been a perfect ride. You can ask my wife and she’ll tell you, I
mess up all the time. But I know that God saved me.
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