Matthew Nath – Author

I recently attended the Jordan Peterson event in Sioux Falls with my wife.  Not sure everyone in our area knows who Jordan Peterson is, but he is a Canadian professor and clinical psychologist who has gained notoriety in the past five-ish years for his public discussions about controversial topics.  He took a stand against a proposed policy at the university he taught at that would require him to identify his students in a specific way.  Jordan objected citing freedom of speech as his basis for refusal of the policy.  He was ridiculed and reviled in the media, but he stood strong, continuing to refuse.  He gained a pretty large following in doing so.

I first saw him on the Joe Rogan podcast in 2018, but that’s getting ahead of myself a little bit.  I’ll come back to that.  For now, I want to share with you a realization that I had while listening to him speak just the other night.  I was reminded then of my first step on the path that eventually lead me back to Christ.  My backsliding stopped with that interview. What’s interesting about that Jordan Peterson is not Christian.  I’m not sure what he identifies as but when I listened to him, he often spoke about his doubts about Christianity.  But he helped bring me back to Christ.  How did that happen?

I still don’t fully understand, so I’m going to try something a little bit different in these next few columns of mine.  I’m not sure exactly how long it will take, but I’d like to write out my personal journey from darkness to light; from lost to found; from Christian in name only to Christian in belief and practice.  I expect about 3 columns, but I’d say I have a tendency to over explain so it might be longer.

I honestly don’t know where this will go, but I want to start by thanking you for walking with me.  It is so powerful to me that we have such a supportive community of believers in our area.  I wish I could thank each and every one of you for your work in serving our communities. There are so many unsung heroes around us every day, I’d never be able to even name you all.  But know that I see you and I pray you feel comfort and encouragement in the good, high quality work that you are doing in the world.  Thank you. And just know that I try to give thanks to God every day for the amazing communities I’ve been blessed to serve beside.

Before I can explain that first step, I should probably share where I was and how far my backsliding had led me.  My life was crumbling around me.  I’m not going to go into the specifics here, but my work was empty and I was drinking every free night that I had.  We weren’t going to church and had very few genuine relationships around us, mostly due to a lack of effort on our part.

When things were at about their darkest, Tracie started watching some personal testimonies of conversion that she found very convicting.  She soon recognized the lack of Christ in our life and did something right away to fix that.  She drug me to church, sometimes against my will, actually.  But I could tell that she really liked it, and I had to agree that it was good for our kids at least.  But where did that leave me?  Some hypocrite offering a fake smile surrounded by genuine love and faith.  It took a little longer than I’d like to admit, but I eventually found Christ and have since been able to share in many of those genuine connections.  That click of recognition when you find someone who knows the Christ you know; who has Christ in them and active as well.

But at that time, I was stuck.  I was raised Christian but didn’t really have any idea what that meant or who Christ was.  To me, the most important thing was that I find what was true.  The Truth.  It had to make sense for me to follow it.  So I started doing my homework. The problem is; I thought I knew Christ.  In reality, I was so far from Christ that I barely recognized him.  But I thought I knew him.  And the Christ I knew didn’t show me very much life or truth.  I looked elsewhere for the truth instead.

Well, this is actually a good place to pause, so I will pick up on my first step next time!