The Formation Of My Faith Series

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.