A short story of my walk with God

Tomorrow evening we'll be hosting our church small group at our house here in Roseville. When I got back from work last night Toni had already picked up the toys and books and games that had been decorating the upstairs part of our abode. I've started some cleaning and I'll keep doing that, on and off, for the rest of the day.

Our small group members have been sharing their individual "stories of faith" at our monthly gatherings, and tomorrow it's Toni's and my turn to share. She thinks it'd be good idea for me to prepare ahead of time and, as usual, she's probably right. I'll do that here.

A short story of my walk with God

My father, who died at 98 years of age last year, had a dry sense of humor, and he often said that "choosing the right grandparents" was the reason for his long life. I'd say the same about my relationship with God. All four of my grandparents knew Jesus -- and they all knew that Jesus knew them.

My parents were the most influential factor in my relationship with God, or, as I like to put it, in my relationship with Jesus. Mom was the leader, though Dad fully participated in prayer, Bible story reading, worshipping at church, singing, and forming our family life around God's will and word.

My siblings and I all went to Sunday School and sang in children's choirs, learned from pastors preaching and confirmation classes As an older kid, I was a member of the high school youth group, the most influential event of which was going to the "All Lutheran Youth" gathering in Houston, Texas in the summer of 1973. (It was "all Lutheran" because it included youth from the "American Lutheran Church," the "Lutheran Church in America" and the "Missouri Synod" and maybe others.) I mention that because I responded with a big YES to the theme verse:

With eyes wide open to the mercies of God, I beg you, my brothers and sisters, as an act of intelligent worship, to give him your bodies, as a living sacrifice, consecrated to him and acceptable by him. Don’t let the world around you squeeze you into its own mould, but let God re-mould your minds from within, so that you may prove in practice that the plan of God for you is good, meets all his demands and moves towards the goal of true maturity. (Romans 12:1-2 Phillips translation)

I'm sure my upbringing and my growing relationship with the Lord led me to decide on a Political Science major when I first started college. My parents had been politically involved because of their faith, which taught them to "Love the Lord your God... and your neighbor as yourself." It took less than a semester to discover I didn't like political science. I switched to a double major in sociology and religion, and added a philosophy minor. My most influential professor was Bruce Reichenbach.

In my freshman year, a college friend, Greg Baldwin, who, sadly, died many years ago, helped me spiritually as I was dealing with a relationship break-up. I got involved with "Lutheran Youth Encounter" then because Greg was involved in it, and, in my sophomore year, I participated, with Greg, in a seven member LYE weekend team. In the summer of 1976 I served as a counselor and canoe guide at a church camp on the south shore of Lake Superior.

In my junior year, I joined an LYE team again, and that's when I met Toni. We were friends on team and partners in an interpersonal communication class. After my junior year, this would have been in 1977, I became the leader of an LYE summer team which traveled mainly in North Dakota. Sadly, and sinfully, at the same time, I was gradually falling into an unhealthy "relationship" with a young woman that I was only saved from in 1980. During the years I was enmeshed in that, life was incredibly hard. Those years required fortitude and led me to rely on God in a way that was new for me. 

When I hit bottom, God rescued me. Coming home to my family and to the church, I connected with God in with deeper and more vibrant faith. That's when I participated with Jesus People Church, which met at the State Theater in downtown Minneapolis, and attended the "Lutheran Conference on the Holy Spirit." At that conference I received a clear call to be a pastor in my home denomination, the American Lutheran Church. During that period, I connected again with Toni.

It took all those years, from 1973 to 1980, to learn what it meant to give my body, and my whole self, to God, as a living sacrifice (as in Romans 12:1). I did learn what it means, not that I always do it.

In about 1979 I took a job as a nursing assistant at Augustana Home in downtown Minneapolis, and then, from 1980-1981, I did the same sort of work at the University of Minnesota hospital. While at work there I saw a pastor ministering to a cancer patient, and, as I was growing spiritually at the same time, I said to myself "I could do that," but I did need to prepare and decide what I really believed and could conscientiously teach about Jesus. I had already been growing in my relationship with God in many ways, but on what basis could be I confident? I needed to study!

My home denomiation, the one I had been called by God to serve, required its pastors to have a bachelor's degree before enrolling in seminary. I went back to Augsburg College and finished my degree there while working and joyfully organizing small group Bible studies -- and leading an effort to found a Minnesota Public Interest Research Group chapter on campus. Though I had soured on politics, the "public good" was still, and still is now, a priority for me that flows from Jesus' command to love God and neighbor. After graduation, I chose to move to Dubuque, Iowa, where Wartburg Seminary is located--but before seminary classes began, I was hired as psychiatric nursing assistant at a local hospital--in the locked unit. I was an adult and needed to support myself.

I lived in the seminary dormitory while working full time at the hospital beginning in the fall of 1982. I was a part time student at first, taking two classes, one on the work of the Holy Spirit, and the other based on a historical-critical look at the gospels. In that class, and doing outside reading, I confronted what I thought was the best and the worst of the scholarship about the real historical Jesus. I came out being convinced that the basics of the faith I had learned from my parents were actually true--with a capital T. 

At some point during that fall semester, I befriended João Biehl, an exchange student from Brazil. I was fascinated with João and his country, partly because Toni had traveled in Brazil earlier that year with a Lutheran Youth Encounter team. Those factors, and my ongoing concern with social issues (a.k.a. the "public good"), led me to apply and be accepted as an exchange student to the seminary where João was enrolled in southern Brazil. So, after saying goodbye to Toni -- we were getting to be more than friends, though we lived in different cities -- After saying goodbye to Toni and my family, I took off for Brazil, landing in São Paulo in early January 1983. 

When I first got there I studied Portuguese. Then, in their fall and winter season, I studied at the Brazilian Lutheran seminary. After that I served as a student pastor at two Lutheran parishes, one in a rural area, and the other in and near the capital city. I won't say more about my time in Brazil here--it was challenging--and good!-- but I will say that Toni came to visit in February 1984 and we were engaged to be married. Our wedding was in October, 1984. We've been married now 40 years plus. My dad would say we've got a good start. He and Mom were married 65 years before she passed away in 2019.

The Lord has been leading Toni and I every day, every year. After a year and a half in Brazil, I transferred my seminary studies to St. Paul, where Toni and I lived in a little upstairs apartment near the corner of Cleveland and Como Avenues. He then led us to Ladysmith, Wisconsin, where I served as associate pastor for six years and Toni and I led the high school youth group. Our three children were born there. We then moved to Taylors Falls, Minnesota, where we served a church for 13 years, then to Cokato, Minnesota, for 10. Toni was a close ministry partner always, and a wonderful mother to our children!

In 2015 it became clear to us that we were called to leave small town ministry so we could be closer to our children in the Twin Cities. During the last 4-5 years of our time in Cokato God led me to serve as a school bus driver, and following further along that path led me to serve now almost 10 years as a bus operator for Metro Transit. We moved to Roseville because the Lord opened up a temporary housing opportunity not far from where we live now, and because our daughter Naomi and family live in the same suburb, albeit a few miles away. And because we live here we connected with Roseville Covenant Church, where Bruce Reichenbach is a member.

Praise God for all He has done!