Anchorage, AK 2008: Running free since becoming a disciple of Jesus twenty years ago today, Trent Ling finds the same God and the same life in Christ wherever he goes. Trent used to try to run away and hide in order to sin. But now, his God travels along, and that old life forever serves as smoldering and humbling ashes.
From Trent Ling:
Twenty years ago today, I declared, “Jesus is Lord,” and enjoyed an ever-reverberating rebirth through baptism into Christ. My Kingdom entry followed an intensely choppy and mercifully abrupt thirty days of hearing, learning, and surrendering to God’s wonderfully immutable Word. Having never read the Bible before, it was like going from zero to infinity in a month!
Ironically, I had lived and loved the world for each of my first twenty-five years of life. But, even my zealous earthly run offered no match for God’s loving overture. Of course, with today’s perspective, it now seems as if I lived twenty-five incredible years in the world followed by twenty billion unimaginable years in Christ! John 10:10. Days in Christ remain saturated in Life. They never fly by. At all. Ever.
Upon first reading the Bible in 1990, I somehow knew immediately, “This is it!” I had diligently looked for “It” but had only managed to bury myself deeper and deeper in a frustrating and perplexing cesspool of dissipation. Quicksand provides a cruel walkway. I knew that my worldly successes were not “It” because after an ever-swirling quarter century racking them up, they neither delivered me nor demonstrated any promise that they would ever deliver me.
During that one month of studying the Bible prior to being baptized into Christ, God orchestrated and unveiled His divine “Rightness.” For me, 1990 stood out clearly as my last chance gulch. As outlined in my preached message, “Dead in the Water,” it was undeniably my Right Time. To humble and arrest my arrogance and overweening pride, God’s word pressed the Right Tone in boldly and unapologetically declaring to me, “You don’t have it!” And, drawing me the entire distance was Christ–the Right Life–transforming me, alluring me, and compelling me through immeasurable love. These harmonic torrents demonstrated the unquestionable superiority of Christ. Who could refuse it? Awash in Truth, I could not!
My twenty years have seen ultimate sights in the Kingdom. Five times I’ve bordered on falling away, with two or three actual deliberate attempts. God rescued me from me on each such wayward occasion. My four-year (1993-1997) spiritual desert stint brought the Old Testament to my face, and brought unmitigated reverence to my soul. My victories know no bounds either. My wife, Siauw. My kids, Isaiah and Arianna. This current ministry of believers. Off the charts! But, no matter the spiritual prosperity, God has me giddy always–knowing, remarkably, that the best of times lay ahead, even still.
Deep and permanently embedded in my heart, I always treasure my dear brother in Christ, Michael, who met me, taught me, and converted me. When the world still bought my hollowed out act, Michael knew upon sight that I needed God more than anybody out there. Specifically sent by God at the perfect time, in the most opportune of places, with beautifully fitting words, and carrying the essential grace and mercy to subdue me, turn me, and release me, Michael delivered me from darkness to light and from death to life. Certainly, on this day, to Michael be my wrenched and eternal thanks; and to God be the glory.
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