My Faith Story

My church's pastor gave us an assignment this week - take a video where we share our story of how Christ changed us. Well, I don't do video but I like to blog.

Let me begin by telling you about one of my other loves - medieval fantasy. As a boy, I thrilled to the stories of King Arthur and his knights. I remember running around the house with a "sword" may of tinkertoys while listening to the Camelot soundtrack on our stereo (boy, I am really dating myself). In high school, I fell in love with Lord of the Rings, which led me to Dungeons & Dragons. I played extensively during high school and college. As an adult, I turned my back on such "childish" pursuits. Oh, I still role played, but I did it in the guise of "serious" historical study as a Civil War re-enactor.

My love of medieval fantasy re-awakened, however, after I watched the Lord of the Rings movies. I started to read fantasy again and to dabble with tabletop and computer roleplaying games. But most seriously, I took up live action role-playing (LARP), where I dressed up as a knight and engaged in mock combat with fellow LARP enthusiasts.

You may think you know where this is heading. Another "Jesus saved me from the evils of fantasy role playing" you may say. 

Actually no. Christ is far more sophisticated than that. Instead, he used my love of fantasy to draw me closer to him. You see, as I spent time roleplaying a knight, I began to study the history of the institution of knighthood and its code of chivalry, I learned a few surprising things.

• Chivalry = Christian virtue: The code of chivalry is deeply rooted in concepts of Christian virtue. Knights are expected to "do unto the least of these" by using their strength to defend the weak. Furthermore, they were expected to be pure, honorable, upright, humble, etc. In other words, they were expected to be Christian soldiers. Of course, many knights strayed from this path (but haven't we all?).
• Knighthood = Service: The essence of knighthood is service - serve the king, serve his people. In fact, the term "knight" literally means "servant" in Old English.

How did this affect me? I began to think about the idea of serving a king. Twentieth Century Americans are no particularly are not particularly fond of "bending the knee" to a king, but I realized that there is a king to whom we should pledge our fealty. A perfect king - the King of Kings - Jesus Christ. I was filled with a desire to serve Him, and his people. I started getting involved with church and various charities. I wanted to learn more about my King so I began to read His Word - the Bible. I am still traveling the path to knighthood, but as I do, I find that my relationship with Christ is growing stronger.