For all the people out there that say blogging is dead, I say you have no clue what you are talking about! I know that sounds harsh, but I adamantly believe it. Let me share a story of a dude named Dewde and my blog.
There was a lot of controversy surrounding an issue of Asian-American Christians taking offense to something, which I responded to in this blog post. Someone I did not know at the time read my blog post and chose to respond with a very short comment which simply stated:
Clearly you are not irrelevant.
Clearly.
peace | dewde
After that comment was left on my blog, I continued to see comments of peace and wisdom, all seasoned with a love that truly seemed to be evidence that Christ was alive and well in this guy named Dewde. He was everywhere in the blogosphere in response to the controversy, yet his remarks were always consistent — always taking the high road, yet acknowledging the inadvertent wrongfulness of the issue. I was taken back by his presence and devotion of time to exhibit such grace and truth from a non-Asian perspective. I imagined that Dewde must have been a well-versed Christian that somehow found grace and was devoted to sharing it with the world. I wanted to be more like him.
One night during a tokbox video conference on an issue of Asian-American ministry, Dewde pops into the conversation. I had to know more of his story. I was all set to be envious of his experience and learn what caused him to be so full of grace. Then, he softly spoke something that rocked my existence! He said that he was an atheist who married a Christian woman and came to know the eternal love of Christ through attending services at North Point Community Church in Georgia. What? An atheist? Specifically, an atheist-turned-Christian-through-a-mega-church-experience. Could this be true? Dewde definitely had my attention. The more he shared that night on tokbox, the more I realized that his story was very similar to mine. He shared a link to a video of his journey as an atheist who came to faith in the Lord. This guy who was so solidly grounded in peace and dripped the love of Christ from every pore of his body made statements in the video like:
- I had questions, but they were not answered to my satisfaction.
- I had a conversation with God. I told him that I did not believe he existed, and that this was his chance to prove to me that he did…I waited…I listened hard…And when the silence was over I had the proof I needed…And I became an atheist with a clean conscious.
What the heck? How could a guy who came to know Christ personally just seven years ago — a guy so rooted in his own reasoning skills and with so much evidence of Christians not being what they professed to be — how could this guy seem to have found so much peace? I said similar things during my years as an atheist, yet don’t reveal that much grace in my life. I was developing a bond with my newfound brother and it greatly encouraged me to know God was at work in this way in others. While Dewde and I have a lot of similarities in our journeys, we are two very individual people. We are not the same. Therefore, Dewde’s story is worth knowing and I encourage you to take a few moments to witness his story in the video below. I know many of you know him via twitter and the blogosphere, but I’m not sure many of you know how he came to be this amazing guy named Dewde, who loves others because Christ first loved him.
Here’s the video:
It’s Personal – A Former Atheist Speaks from dewde on Vimeo.
Related posts:
and now i like dewde even more.
what a great post youve written here. it speaks a lot of you and your character too.
just…beautiful.
“it speaks a lot of you and your character too.”
Yeah… it says he has a heart the size of Montana. And he hasn’t known me long enough to meet the sarcastic and pithy side of my personality.
All in good time, Dave. All in good time…
peace | dewde
Dewde: Knowing you have a sarcastic and pithy side makes me wonder if we are not in fact twins in some cosmic way :)
Tam: Thanks for your kind remarks, although I am happy to take a backseat to Dewde and the wondrous things God has been doing through this amazing human being.
Good grief Dave. I hope my wife doesn’t read this post or she may be tempted to start her own blog and provide a more… balanced perspective!
I appreciate what you said about my comments on the Deadly Viper controversy. I’m not usually that consistant or thoughtful. Looking back, I don’t remember ever praying so much before I clicked the “submit” button. I was contstantly reading and rereading posts and articles and conversations to make I sure I understood. And I was literally praying and thinking before posting.
I plan on being in that habit more.
You’re pretty remarkable yourself. I was surprised to find our stories so similar. Praise God for @dewdette and Mrs. Ingland! We owe them much.
peace | dewde
Dewde: Seriously, as much as we love our wives, I never imagined the day would ever come where I would agree with you in praising God for them :) It is an honor to know you and to have heard your story firsthand that night a few weeks ago on tokbox. I for one would greatly appreciate your wife’s perspective as someone of faith risking it to be in a relationship with an atheist. That’s a powerful story as well :)
Thanks again for your grace-filled and thoughtful posts to the blogs during the past month or so. Thanks again for sharing your story with the world and letting them know, along with me, that God can transform people’s lives even at a time when they think they have everything going for them and have no need for God.
Hey, I met Dewde at the Blogger’s Meetup at Catalyst this year. Cool guy. Glad I found your blog too, Dave. Thanks for sharing.
Matt! Sup man.
peace | dewde
Matt: Thanks!
Dave:
Thank you for providing this backstory on the prolific and always witty @dewde. So often I’m satisfied to just follow the tweets without knowing the story behind the tweeter. I rob myself in doing so.
Thank you for highlighting his story. I look forward to meeting him IRL some day.
Dawn Carter
@decart
Dawn: I was pretty much moved to tears when I heard his story and saw the video. Dewde reminds me so much of myself, yet I have much to learn from him. Thanks for taking the time to get to know his story. God is shining brightly through him, just as he is through you :)
Thanks for sharing Dave. I’m glad I was a part of that Tokbox convo where both you and Dewde shared parts of your story. Peace – Josh
Josh, it was a great conversation and I was thankful to be a part of it as well :)