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Life stories

Every face has a story to tell. Here you find real people and real life stories. One word to sum up what they have shared is TRANSFORMATION - a life that has been transformed for something greater and more powerful!

Although my family aren’t practising Christians, growing up I went to an Anglican Sunday School. My school had a strong Anglican thread in it, with a religious assembly twice a week. I was a Scout as well, and my troop had strong links with the local Anglican church.

However by my early teens I was disillusioned with the church. It seemed as though there were two extra commandments people had added on to the more famous Ten Commandments. These appeared to be ‘Thou shalt not be young’ and ‘Thou shalt not enjoy yourself’. As someone who was young and liked to enjoy himself I didn’t feel particularly welcome. I left the church and, to an extent, closed my heart to Christ.

However all my life I have had an avid interest in science and the wonders of this creation. The more I learnt the more impossible it all seemed; surely a world this complex, this fantastic, cannot have come about purely by chance but must have been designed, created. Science and an understanding of this world brought me to the position that there was a Creator; yet it was religion that had nearly ended my faith. Most people find atheism in science and faith in religion. I’d managed to get it the wrong way around, and found myself stuck in Agnosticism, which means that I had doubt. I was caught half way between Faith and Atheism, but had the consolations of neither.

I was looking for some way of ending the doubt, and I started to read various books. Nietsche; Sagan; Plato, Dostoyevsky, Dawkins, Sun Zhoo. They all offer comments, intelligent views and thoughtful ways of explaining life or how to live your life, but none fully satisfied me. They gave snippets, mere mouthfuls of the banquet I was after.

Eventually I was invited to come to this church by some of the people here who I work with. Several months later (when I’d run out of excuses) I came along. That first time I didn’t get anything special. I wasn’t going to return, but then I realised that even though I’d struggled at first with some of the books I’d read I hadn’t given up straight away. So it didn’t seem right to give up on church straight away, and I came back.

That second visit the story of the heir in Galatians was preached, and that story interested me as it chimed with something inside me. So I came back a third week. And you haven’t been able to get rid of me since, quite frankly. I accepted Christ last Christmas, and have felt different ever since. Now I feel as though I am sitting at that banquet of life and knowledge.

Now I have God’s influence in my life everything seems better- and fuller- than it did before. My life hasn’t changed in an immediately obvious way on the outside; I still have the same job, same house, same bank balance. It’s changed on the inside.

Now I can see, hear and feel God’s presence in my life. When I see the world I see the hand of God in Creation. I hear my Lord when I spend quiet time with him, reading His Word and praying. And I feel my Father’s touch most when I’m stressed and busy at work; calming me down and bringing a peace I used to struggle to obtain.

I could list the blessings in my life but I’ve gone on too long as it is. I’ll just leave with a reading from Psalm 91, v1-2. It is something which I have found comfort in.

He who dwells in the shelter of the Most High will rest in the shadow of the Almighty. I will say of the LORD , "He is my refuge and my fortress, my God, in whom I trust." (Psalm 91, v1-2)

Stuart Dark