At some point in his late 20s, Mike Anderson was sitting at the table when his sister looked at him and said, “You know, you’d be a really good preacher.” Mike, as a full-blown atheist, responded, “I’d rather die than teach the Word of God.”

As a child growing up, God was just somebody you called upon when you needed something. But the older he got, the more Mike got exposed to the darkness in the world. His parents went through a divorce, had some family members that struggled spiritually, and he just didn’t have a lot of good answers. When he went off to college, Mike just ended up walking away—he just got to a point where he didn’t believe that God existed. 

One night, he was driving home from class and just started thinking “What can I see? And what around me doesn’t have a Creator?” He looks around at everything, and there is nothing that he can see that doesn’t come from somewhere or something. And so he thought, “I might want to rethink this whole thing.”

Mike’s journey back to God really began with two pastors that were willing to teach him in a rational and logical way that really made sense to him. It equipped him to build that foundational relationship with Christ.

There wasn’t just one instant moment where Mike gave his life to Christ—it was just a slow, sort of erosion process of his heart that led him back. One of the things that’s always stuck out to Mike about Jesus is his brutal honesty. There’s an authenticity and genuineness, but there is also all this love and grace at the same time, and you put that together, and for Mike, it just has to be true.

The pastor of Mike’s church in Colorado challenged him to find out what his gifts are. Mike responded that he does a lot of teaching at work and so one of his gifts is just teaching people things. His pastor responded, “Well, I’m going to be on vacation in a couple of weeks—let’s get you on the calendar to preach.” This, of course, brought him back to the night with his sister at the table, which led him to think, “God, you really have a good sense of humor.”

Mike started out on the right track, on the good track, and just veered off and got lost. Then somehow, through God’s love and grace and mercy, he was able to find his way home.

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This story, and all of our stories, are from people who call Door Creek Church their home. As you contemplate this story, may your faith be encouraged and your hope renewed. If you’d like to learn more about sharing your story, start here.