“I am not ashamed of the gospel, because it is the power of God for the salvation of everyone who believes.” (Romans 1:16)
I realized just before I left Griffin that there was no promise that the reputation I had earned in my adopted community would leave with me. The irony in that revelation is when I arrived in Griffin, I had been saved for less than a year and was delighted that the “old” Mike Ruffin had been left in North Carolina. No one in Griffin would ever question whether the change in me was real because no one knew the man I once was. I could start all over. But now I was moving to a new community, a changed man who was proud of what God had accomplished in his life. The problem was my new community was over 450 miles away and cared very little about the reputation I had earned in Griffin.
The Bible says that we should never be reluctant to ask the Lord for help. So as insignificant as it may seem, I asked Jesus to help my new community to get to know me. “I want them to see your goodness in me, Lord. Will you help me with that?” I prayed.
My wife often reminds my children to be careful with their prayer requests. “God might just honor them,” she warns. I always thought her advice was just meant for the children, until God responded to my particular prayer request. Less than three weeks after I arrived in North Carolina, one of the local newspapers found out about my website, read several of my columns, and launched a full-scale assault. “Why is this man Praying?” the headline read. The article was full of excerpts from columns that I posted on my website, all of which were taken out of context and designed solely to portray me as narrow-minded Christian who was the wrong choice for a community that touted itself for its diversity.
The next couple of weeks were difficult for me. While I am usually quick to defend my faith, I thought of Christ when He was put on trial. He said very little. My spirit told me that I should follow his example, so I remained relatively quiet while the storm raged.
You wouldn’t believe the things that were said about me. One of the local columnists called me a liar because he heard I had never told my new employers that I featured my devotions on the Internet. Look up Gaspo Column and put some comments here.
That’s when God stepped in. A popular talk radio host asked his callers what they thought. The vast majority of them took my side. If my faith wasn’t a problem in Griffin, then why should it be a problem in Durham they asked? After all, if Durham really claimed to embrace diversity, perhaps they should leave me alone and respect my right to write about my faith.
Most storms blow over and this one did, too. The newspapers have moved on to other issues and I am settling in to my new job. But the lesson I learned will stay with me forever.
God did exactly what I asked him to do. He helped my new community get to know me. In fact, about a half-million people read about my faith in major newspapers that serve the region. There’s no hiding the fact that I’m a Christian who believes in the Word of God.
We may not like the way God answers our prayers, but He does answer them. I guess what amazes me most is just how far a great big God is willing to go for someone like me. And you know what? He’ll do the same for you.
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