The Formation of My Faith
Wisdom from the mountain top.
There are four Questions that matter in life
Who Am I?
Where Did I Come From?
Why Am I Here?
Where Am I Going?
Answer these and you will find the secret to a contented and peaceful life…
Finding the answer is more of a process than a place.
Today in I’d like to tell you where I am in the process of discovering the answer to these questions…
Who Am I?
Well, I’m a preacher’s kid who discovered early in life that he is more of klutzy nerd than anything else…
In the summer of 1966 I was working at a church summer camp. My formal title that I gave myself was "Aquatic Engineer". Informally, I was known as the dishwasher.
The week of HS Camp the faculty was a little slim and I was asked to play on their team during the annual Faculty-Camper Softball Game.
It was pretty heady stuff for a scrawny HS sophomore to play with the "adults" – especially with all the HS girls watching! Life is good!
The put me in right field – where the ball hardly ever gets hit… So I was enjoying the summer sun, counting dandelions and working at running cool when the sides changed every inning. (Running Cool is kind of like running in slow motion and I was pretty good at it!)
Towards the end of the game some kid hit a high fly ball smack dab over the first baseline. I started running toward the ball – running cool at first – when it became clear that I was going to have to pick up some speed.
I through it into overdrive and was hitting 60-70 mph when I stretched – still running – to catch the ball…
Now, it was a pretty good looking stretch – still cool – although I did miss the ball. When I looked up – still running except I was going even faster – about 110-120 mph when I saw a wire ash can directly in my path.
It was a barrel shaped basket made of heavy-duty wire.
It had been used to burn papers and trash (back when that was allowed) and was almost ¾ of the way full.
Now I was going about 250 mph and there was no way I could avoid this thing so… I did the only thing left to do – I dove over the top of it.
It was a really good-looking dive – with only one small problem. As I tucked my head and prepared to roll into the lilac bush – did I forget to mention the lilac bush? – my belt buckle caught on the front wire of the ash can and we both tumbled into the bushes.
There was a mushroom cloud that could be seen from the other side of the lake and somehow I knew that I was no longer going to have to worry about looking "Cool" the rest of the week.
That’s what I was growing up through my HS years and I wouldn’t go back there for anything!
What I have become is a 50 yr old man with 30 years experience working with people – as much as I sometimes protest – I really do like people and I love my God, my life, my wife, my family, and my church.
I have discovered that I am a unique, one of a kind, "when God made me – he broke the mold" kind of guy.
And it’s a good thing – I’m pretty sure that the world can only put up with one Rick Stacy.
The truth is that we are all unique, one of a kind," When God made you – he broke the mold" kind of people.
Where Did I Come From?
Now that gets a little tougher.
Besides the obvious answer – mom and dad! I either came from the creative of an all powerful God or I’m the product of a mindless accidental jelling of materials that came into existence somehow without cause.
Preachers Kid.
I struggled with this until I was in the seventh grade. A science teacher made fun of my parent’s faith in the front of the class and I was forced to deal with evolution, creation and the reality of my existence.
I studied it all the way into my college years. It came down to a simple faith in God. I am not a man of great faith.
If I were I would believe in the evolutionary causation of my existence. I cannot believe it. It takes far too much faith – and it is faith to accept evolution as the cause of one’s existence.
No, I believe that God created my soul and formed my earth.
Why Am I Here?
There are many answers to this question Theologians think great thoughts about God and work to explain the reasons for Human existence – but I’m not that profound.
Philosophers write great volumes of works expounding the reasons that man thinks the things he thinks – but
I’m not that intellectual. Journalists report the cracks and flaws in the logic and persuasive arguments of cracked and flawed believers – but I am not that cynical.
For me it is a simple thing: If I am unique and If I am made by a creative genius God then the answers to why I’m here must come from Him also… If he is a caring God then he must have sent me a message…
I have read and studied the Bible for almost as many years as I am alive…
For me it has come down to one thing - God wants me to hang out with Him and to be His friend.
It is both exciting and amazing to me that I am created to share love and life with the creator God – My Father.
Where Am I Going?
Well – I am going to spend all of my life with God as my friend. I have not always been a good friend to God. I have sinned against him. I have hurt him by turning away from him.
He has never turned from me.
In fact, he has put me in with a lot of other unique people called a church. Together we are lot of things.
An army with a mission. A family with deep and close relationships. A community of people who care about each other. A body with different parts and who work together to accomplish what we could never do separately.
Most of all we are his friends and we have come to love him deeply and to enjoy being with him and his other friends.
We’d love to have you become his friend too.
MCC is not a club. It’s just a bunch of friends who like to hang out together with God. I’d like you to get to get to know MCC better.
Take a look at some of the images of MCC in this video…
