Not Holding Back: Conversion, What is it Good For?

I do not know the exact day or time I became a believer. I remember a day that I asked my dad if I could be baptized, but I know that my desire was based on the fact that my friend was just baptized.

I know that I have followed Christ for some time now but I am unwilling to concede that I know the exact moment at which I decided to "follow" Christ. I believe that I should not create theology or doctrine about salvation or the reality of another person's salvation based simply on my own experience. Having said that I also wonder and am concerned about this world where people I have encountered in the mainline protestant church are so concerned with the concrete evidence of one person's salvation, in essence placing the judgement themselves. Do we think we really understand the width of God's grace as we carry out these types of inquisitions.

I believe that the belief and following of Christ, conversion, if you will, represents a starting place rather than a place of arrival. I refuse to spend the entirety of my intellectual endeavors on the introduction of story meanwhile missing the rest of the story. An author does not spend 399 pages of a 400 page book simply to set up a story that is one page in length. Why live then? This model leads to a people too wrapped up in the self-benefit or gain obtained from salvation, eternal life with God. We miss out on participating in restoration of creation that God can make real by the restoration of our soul. We then miss out on the boon of conversion for life between now and death.

I believe that God has chosen a group of people to spread his message of salvation to the world just as the people of Israel. I believe this galvinic process of election in no way is a guarantor of salvation. I also believe that many people who adhere to the election miss the entire idea of a call to share the love of Christ in ways that he commanded and rest instead on Laurels of their election. I don't believe this is the fault of the believer but rather the logic of the belief.