My Beginning with God as an Active God

Recently, SOJ collected stories about our experiences with our very Active God. We want to be able to share these stories with more people so they can see how God works in everyday lives. 

The stories will appear weekly on the SOJ Connections blog. You can visit the blog each week, or go to the blog and sign up to have these delivered to your inbox automatically. 

We also encourage you to submit your own stories to chris@spiritofjoy.us. It can be anonymous. Looking forward to seeing how God is working in all of our lives. 

My Beginning with God 
as an Active God

by Ed Thomas

God opposes the proud, 

but gives grace to the humble.

James 4:6 (NRSV)

I grew up in the church. I can’t ever remember not knowing about Jesus. But knowing about Jesus is not the same as knowing Jesus. Therefore, like many, I had a moment of awakening when faith became more real and God was revealed as more active.

Like many, my moment came when I was humbled. I’d reached an absolute dead end, and I needed something bigger than me.

You see, everything had always come relatively easy for me … but suddenly, I was unemployed. Then I was underemployed. I couldn’t support my young family. I was frustrated, depressed, and desperate. In other words, I was utterly humbled.

At the time, I was an artist – an untrained, unwanted, and unemployed graphic artist. I remember looking outside and seeing a bunch of spindly little trees with a million spindly little branches and I remember thinking, “As good of an artist as I am, I can’t draw that.”

Then I remember thinking, “Wait, not only can God draw that, but he can create that out of absolute nothing.”

And I was totally and utterly humbled.

I’d always done faith my way. It was my philosophies … my politics … my priorities … my preferences. I cut and paste and explained away major parts of the Bible. In other words, I created God in my image. But suddenly, I was humbled. I’d reached an absolute dead end, and I needed something bigger than me.

That day, I sat down and read the entire Gospel of Mark … and it challenged what I’d always believed on every page. But I prayed, “God, you are God, and I’m not.”

And that day, my faith changed. God was real. I didn’t get a new job immediately; indeed, none of my outward circumstances changed at all. But suddenly there was a peace in my heart. There was a hope in my spirit and a purpose in my step.

In your life, where are you trying to control things? Let go … and I’ll bet that’ll be the beginning of God being an Active God for you too!