THE BIBLE IN MY LIFE September 19, 2005 Issue

ONE MAN'S SEARCH

BRIAN KISSOCK

WHEN I WAS A LADDIE living near Belfast, Northern Ireland, my mother and grandmother would sing me nursery rhymes and tell me fairy stories. But of all the stories they shared, the ones that always seemed to stand out were from the Bible—Moses in the bulrushes, David and Goliath, Jonah and the whale, the three men in the fiery furnace. But the one I loved to hear again and again was the one about Daniel in the lions' den. It spoke to me of God's care, protection, and love. You see, I used to be scared of a big dog next door, and this story helped me overcome my fear. In fact, I ended up loving that dog.

My parents were devout Christians and regularly attended a Presbyterian church in Northern Ireland. So it was natural for me to go to that church. To the age of 17, I went to Sunday School and Bible class, and had a thorough grounding in the Bible and Protestant theology. Then, for several years, I stopped going to church, much to the dismay of my parents. I stopped reading the Bible, and got involved in drinking, smoking, and other vices.

When I was 20, my father passed on. I went to the minister of the church and asked him why my father had to die so young. The minister was compassionate, but he also said, "It is God's will." That didn't seem to be in sync with what I had been reading in the Bible, so for some time I thought about what he had said. But the more I thought about it, the less sense it made to me, because I knew from the stories in the Old and New Testaments that the Bible characters, including Jesus and his disciples, were saved from dire situations. There were accounts of folks healed of life–threatening diseases, and even the dead being raised. Was this in contravention of God's will?