Isn't God Amazing?

I was reading an interesting article in the most recent “Christianity Today” about a man who was moved to return to faith through reading the writings of Albert Camus, a French philosopher (and atheist) who was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1957. It reminded me a little bit of my own faith journey.

I’m not trying to suggest (or even imply) that I was filling the quiet moments of my teenage years reading the works of Albert Camus, I had never even heard of Camus until I was in college, but one of the big players in my spiritual journey was the rock musical, “Jesus Christ Superstar,” a musical and dramatic piece that was never thought of as being that complimentary to the historic Christian faith.

“Superstar” was the only thing that I asked for on my 18th birthday. I listened to it incessantly and after years of singing in Church choirs this was the first time that I consciously remembered hearing about people like Caiaphas (the High Priest in the temple in Jerusalem) and Judas Iscariot (the disciple who betrayed Jesus.) I learned the story of Jesus passion from Tim Rice and Andrew Lloyd Webber.

I didn’t give my life to Jesus because of “Superstar” but I did hear the story in a way that I had never heard it before. No matter how inaccurate (or inappropriate) “Superstar” was socially or theologically it became a piece of the spiritual puzzle that I was struggling to understand.

In 1 Corinthians 10 the Apostle Paul said, “I am allowed to do anything”—but not everything is beneficial” and I believe that to be true. There are lots of things that can influence us away from hearing or following after Jesus. Not everything is helpful, but I wonder if we sometimes dismiss things too quickly. I guess what I’m trying to say is that I believe that God is able to use an amazingly diverse collection of things to draw us closer to Him and we should never underestimate what God is able to do with ordinary things and in the lives of ordinary people. I guess what I’m trying to say is, “Isn’t God amazing?”