An Atheist Meets a Believer

By Barry Heid

I was a religious skeptic. Although I grew up in a family that went to church every Sunday, I became critical of the church and dissatisfied with religious philosophies. Soon I found myself not wanting anything to do with church or religious people. In fact, for thirteen years I did not set foot inside a church except to attend my grandmother’s funeral. Eventually I called myself an atheist. When I encountered religious people, I watched their lives just to prove to myself that they were only hypocrites. I enjoyed arguing religion, and researched subjects like evolution to arm myself for potential confrontations.

The witness of a true Christian

Then, God brought me into contact with a real Christian. One day as I looked through a stack of job applications, I noticed one applicant had made references to Sunday school and church activities. I thought, If this person is hired, I will probably be getting sermons! But during the interview, the only reference the applicant made to anything religious was that she was a leader in the Sunday school at her church. It turned out that she was the most qualified, and so was offered the job. After she came to work, I watched her life, looking for signs of hypocrisy. I couldn’t find any, and her work was outstanding so I was happy with my choice.

Once, to stimulate a discussion, I asked if her church believed in creation or evolution. She replied that she believed in creation. So I quickly thought, Oh, good! I’m going to have a little fun with this! I wasn’t planning to do anything mean, but just to have a little sport. However, when I brought up my questions, she just said, “Well, rather than arguing with you, I’ll bring you a tract that explains better than I could what my stand is on that subject.”

The next day, she brought me a tract on creation versus evolution. After reading it, I felt different than I ever had when I’d tried to get into a religious argument. Something inside me said, Who am I to be critical toward someone else’s beliefs? From then on, I had no interest in getting into religious arguments.

Secretary takes a stand

Several weeks later, I didn’t want to talk with a certain consultant until I had an opportunity to verify some information. So I told my secretary to tell him that I wasn’t in. She quickly responded, “I won’t do that. I can’t lie and tell him that you’re not here when you are.” I was shocked because I hadn’t really considered that I was asking her to lie. I felt guilty. Here I had been thinking I was moral and doing all right, and yet I was trying to get somebody to lie for me. I left the office telling her, “Okay, I’m actually going to go.”

That incident started me thinking. Maybe I really wasn’t quite as successful at being moral as I thought. For a number of years, I had either discounted Heaven or tried to convince myself that if there was such a place, I’d make it because certainly God would be grading on the curve and I felt I was better than many other people. But all of a sudden, my philosophy didn’t seem very sound.

In the meantime, I had met my secretary’s husband, and observed that they seemed so content with life and happy with their Christian faith. I wasn’t by any means ready to take the plunge, but I started thinking that may­be religion wasn’t as bad as I had labeled it.

An invitation accepted

They invited me to their church, and I didn’t have any reason to say no. Also I had a certain amount of curiosity. Yet after I had committed myself to go, I started getting cold feet. I had never been inside a Protestant church, and I had no idea what to expect. But from the moment I walked into the building, I was pleasantly surprised.

Everybody was very friendly to me. When I had attended church as a child, we belonged to a large parish. The church was crowded and nobody said hello to anyone. But in this church, it seemed everyone walked up, greeted me, and introduced themselves. I was skeptical because I thought they were just being cordial since they knew I was coming. However, I watched and they were friendly to everyone. It was like a big, happy family. I was impressed with what I observed, though I was still apprehensive as to exactly what would happen in the meeting.

During the service, I enjoyed the music and even tried to join in with the congregational singing. But the testimonies really stopped me in my tracks. I had never heard people stand up in a meeting and tell what God had done for them. It impressed me. I was almost in awe as I listened to the people say how God had worked in their lives. For the first time, I thought maybe there really was something in this for me.

The sermon was exactly what I needed too. Interestingly, the preacher’s subject was evolution. I thought, Well I guess I deserve this! I listened and left thinking, There is something here. So I attended the next service, enjoying it and feeling good about religion, something I had never really felt before.

A growing interest

From that point on, I became more and more interested in finding out about this thing they called salvation. I asked questions and talked to the pastor. He encouraged me to read the Bible and pray. A couple of weeks later, I asked Jesus for forgiveness and gave my life to Him. He saved me. What a difference that made in my life!

From then on, I wanted to be in church. The Bible interested me and I loved singing the church songs. Other things were different too. The swearing stopped. Although I had not cursed much, I did when I hurt myself. One time after I was saved, I hit my thumb with a hammer. It surprised me that I did not curse. Instead I laughed as I realized again what a different person I had become.

Like many new Christians, I had things to deal with as I started this different way of living. Day by day, the Lord helped me learn what He wanted. And He’s still teaching me.

One of the lessons I learned was about making restitution. A number of years before I was saved, I had stolen some things at a place where I had worked. In themselves they were not particularly valuable, but accum­ulatively they had a certain amount of worth, although I did not know how much. I knew I had to do something. So I prayed about it for a while and finally felt that the Lord gave me a dollar figure that I should send to make it right. That was not an easy thing to do, because I really liked the people and felt I had let them down. But I knew I had to do it, so I wrote my former boss a letter and explained what had happened. I told him that I had been saved and wanted to make this situation right and enclosed the amount of money, requesting his forgiveness. A few weeks later, I received a nice letter from him. He was so appreciative that I had returned the money for the value of the material I had taken. Since that time, I have been back to visit him and the people I worked with, and still consider them good friends. So the Lord undertook.

The nature of my job brought me into contact with many influential community and business leaders. I know these people were watching my life just as I watched others. I pray that I can be the example that I should be.

Barry Heid is a member of the Apostolic Faith in Yakima, Washington.