How did you come to believe in God?  As you look back over the course of your life, were there unique experiences or events that shaped your faith and understanding of God?

In my particular line of work, I tend to hear a lot of “conversion” stories from people.   Some people can tell you the exact date on which they were “saved” and describe in dramatic detail how they gave their lives to Christ.  Others might describe their conversion experience as something like a long journey, or an evolving process of ongoing discovery and surrender to God that changed them over time, at various points along the way.  And still others might say that there was never a time in their lives when they could not remember believing in God, and so they cannot point to some singular “conversion” experience that changed everything for them all at once, but they can say that they have been changing all along.

We all come to faith by different roads.  Some of us, like Paul on the “road to Damascus” (Acts 9), get thumped by God unexpectedly, dramatically, and are transformed almost all at once.  Others, like the two disciples on the “road to Emmaus” (Luke 24), walk beside the risen Jesus for miles without ever knowing it, only later to discover that he was with us all along.

Is one road to faith more preferable than the other?  Is a “Damascus Road” experience more legitimate than an “Emmaus Road” one?  I hope not, because in the end, it’s not a matter of how you came to believe, but that you did at all, and that you are even still.

The road goes ever on, as they say.  So spend less time looking back at the roads you’ve already traveled.  Give aim to what lies ahead and the faith that awaits you.  Expect to be thumped like Paul from time to time—blinded by the light of God’s truth and goodness, when you least expect or deserve it.  And rest assured that the risen Jesus will occasionally walk beside you in disguise, waiting and wondering when you’ll open your eyes just a little more.