Scott Ashley

Age: most people guess me to be younger than I am so I'll leave it at that.

Divorced father of two very talented young men.

Resident of Carol Stream since 1997

Growing up in a church that didn't teach very much, I was an easy mark for a postmodern university teaching the big bang and evolution. Before I turned 19 I had pretty well decided that there was no God and had become an atheist. Being a science fiction fan and going to college with Christians who weren't versed in explaining why they had faith or how faith applied to their daily lives served to solidify my misguided belief that there may be more intelligent beings than humans but certainly no creator.

In 1986 I had been dating a young lady that I had met in college and we were talking about getting married. One day out of the blue, we're in the car together and she starts crying and says "I can't marry you, you're not a Christian". (She had been a believer since about the age of 6.) I was shocked! Blind-sided! She wasn't dumping me. She didn't say "I don't love you." She just hit the one thing that I was probably more convinced of than anything else I "knew".

For the first time in my life I was dealing with a Christian who was really putting her life decisions on the line because of her faith, in a way that directly affected me, and I couldn't just say OK and walk away. Very shortly after that my whole life was turned upside down.

It soon became clear that God was tapping me on the shoulder in a way that I could not ignore. Within 3 months I had done a lot of Bible reading, devoured Christian books and magazines, sought the council of a friend who had recently converted, and met with a pastor about going to church.

Only by the miracle of God working in me was I able to consider "What if an amoeba is to man, as man is to God?". That's the thought he put in my head one day as I was watching one of my favorite science shows on TV. The point being that, until that moment, I had not been willing to admit that God is so awesome that I might not be able to understand everything about him. I saw that God is who he says he is and that I didn't need to be concerned with whether or not people could convince me of that, He had convinced me. A few months later I made a profession of faith and was baptized Later that same year that brave young lady and I were married.

It is a profound tragedy that we are divorced now. However...God has now also revealed himself to me during my darkest days in ways that I may well not have been able to experience any other way. Through prayer and fasting, the support of close friends in small groups, the friendliness and support of people in Sunday school, and much searching of the Bible, I have been able to continually see God's work in my life and in the lives of my fellow church members.

Are you like me? Have you believed what you heard in school, been disillusioned by Christians or have you been left wondering why what they say doesn't make sense to you? Ask God to put someone in your life that will say the ONE thing to you that will cause you to reevaluate your thinking. He will be only too happy to show you who He is.