25 May 2016 | St Albans [Victor Hulbert] This article first appeared in the TED Friendship edition of Adventist World, May 2016.
Even for a committed Christian, life can be dangerous when you look to the dark side. Lutz Rental can testify. Brought up in an atheist home in Germany’s Rhineland, Lutz nevertheless discovered a Bible in a rubbish skip, started to read, and at age 13 became a Christian, actively involved with his local youth group.
Life was good. Even his parents were happy with his choice. He was happy himself – that is – until a youth evangelism team came to town. ‘Christal take’ were high powered. Their loud music was attractive. Their powerful testimonies of rescue from a life of crime, or drugs, or Satanism, made a powerful impression on Lutz young mind. He started to hang-out with the group but found himself troubled. He had no dramatic testimony to tell. He’d not been on the ‘dark side’. Her questioned as to whether he really was a Christian since he hadn’t been rescued from some depraved background. He felt that, “you only count for something in your Christian walk when you come out of the gutter.”
As a result he found himself strangely attracted to ‘the other side’. And so began a 15 year spiral that led him into Satanism, the occult, drink and drugs. He recalls that he desperately needed something to believe in but could never find it. It also turned him into a recluse. Even with the few friend he had, he said, “There is a sort of togetherness but it lasts only as long as the drug high goes on.”
Living in a run-down two-room flat, his life became a ritual of getting up in the morning, heading to work, and already starting to drink during the day. After work the drinking would increase – along with drug taking. “That was my day. I didn’t see the point in anything. I couldn’t care about anything.”
Ready to totally give up on life Lutz withdrew all his cash from the bank, and with just the clothes on his back caught a train to France, then a boat to England. There he decided to spend all his money, then kill himself.
He made the attempt one dark night high in a remote corner of the Pennine way, a popular but remote walking route. He found a quiet corner and prepared to slash his wrists. However, he says, his body froze. He couldn’t do it. He spent the whole night trying but failed.
Nevertheless, he says, “God uses whatever he can to get you on the right track.” For Lutz that ‘right track’ started with the theft of a set of tarot cards and a Bible. Not sure which to choose he found himself reading more and more of the Bible and deciding that maybe he should give Jesus a second chance.
There were Christians that helped. Wandering into a Christmas Eve concert at a Methodist church was a turning point for him. The Salvation Army and a Baptist feeding programme also had an influence. But it was when he visited the Gloucester Seventh-day Adventist church and their twice weekly lunches for the homeless, that things really started to change.
He spotted two ladies reading the Bible. When he returned the following Thursday the Bible was open again. He says, “The others wolfed their food down and left as fast as possible but I found myself rooted to the spot.”
He asked questions and found the answers he had been searching for over so many years. He equally found unconditional acceptance. For the first time, prayer became important for him. Attending mid-week prayer meeting he was impressed to see not just the leaders praying, but everyone praying together.
Even in his down times that acceptance is important. He recalls how, in the middle of winter, he had a strong urge to hit the road again. He got on his bike and started to cycle. Miles down the road he found himself thinking about what he was giving up. He stopped, rooted to the spot. Seeing a phone box he called a church member. With no hesitation they came and picked him up.
Lutz may now live in a different county, speaking a different language, worshipping in a different church than the one of his teenage years. However, for Lutz, he is home. His advice to those asking about Christianity: “Go for it because it’s worth it. Only in Christ do we have a life.”
Moresh Sewnandan would agree with him. On 3 October 2015 he was baptized at the Adventist Church in Rotterdam North, in the Netherlands. Now age forty he had been searching for a church for the previous decade – eventually attending a visitor’s day at the Adventist church where, he says, “I found peace and good spiritual food.”
Speaking of his experience he said, “In the beginning I doubted whether I was in the right place, because worship was on a Saturday while all the other church worship on Sunday.” Following Bible study he described how “it all clear to me who God is and what His plan is. I decided to be baptized.”
That was a two year journey, but, he says, “On the day of my baptism I felt an enormous joy inside which I had never had experienced before in my life. It is a day I will never forget and something I want to share with everybody.”
That sharing is already happening – in the first place with his family back in Surinam. In fact, he is delighted that his father has recently started attending church. He is praying that his mother will follow.
Moresh and Lutz are not unique. Walk into a church in Reykjavik, Athens, London, Belgrade or Helsinki and you are likely to hear similar accounts. The reason is simple. Jesus transforms lives. Language and culture is no obstacle. Discovering the reality of Jesus and developing trusting relationships with fellow believers really can turn individuals from ‘the dark side’ into a world of hope. [tedNEWS]
tedNEWS Staff: Victor Hulbert, director; Esti Pujic, editor
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