I met Joan Ball this past weekend at Len Sweet’s Mountain Advance in Canaan Valley, WV. Joan has a unique story about how she came to a faith in Christ. She led a driven, successful life of determined atheism (she felt Christianity was for the weak). God began working in her life when she found herself looking for a lost item at a party. When no one could find it she prayed to a Saint her Mother had prayed to but she couldn’t even remember the Saint’s name. The lost item was found and immediately she was overcome with a powerful, supernatural sense that it was God that had answered the prayer. Later she came to a conviction that the Bible was true – except she didn’t know what it said. She began digging into the Bible and some weeks later understood who Jesus was and the relationship she already had with him.
What struck me about Joan’s conversion was that it didn’t follow the usual route. You know – someone shares the Gospel, the person feels convicted, they pray the sinner’s prayer and repent. In Joan’s case there was no Christian there to convict or counsel her. She seemed to have come to a faith in Jesus before she even knew who He was. Imagine that – God working without our help. Is that possible? Does that challenge the way you think about how God works? What if He doesn’t need us?
BTW - You’ll be able to read more about Joan’s faith journey in her book, Flirting with Faith: My Journey from Atheism to Something More, due to be released the 1st week in May 2010.
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