My Biographical details
I was born in1949. In 1978 I was 29 years old and at that time finishing my psychological studies. I was married in 1973, and quickly the first three of our six children were born.
From 1977 we have lived in Würzburg, a nice city (120 000 inhabitants) in a wine area in northern Bavaria / Germany.
Today I do not remember which dreams and goals had been in my heart in those days besides to love my wife and my children and to hope that the world will be better.
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Here you can see me 1978: |
| In 1978 (30 years ago) my life took a decisive turn moving from a “that” faith to a personal “you” faith! In other words, the Christian faith opened up for me as a personal relationship with God.If I was someone with a social conscience before this, somehow trying to be a Christian, I knew from this point onwards what consequences the Gospel of Jesus Christ wanted and could take me, on the one hand placing me in the loving arms of my forgiving heavenly Father, and on the other hand giving my life the clear direction and goal of following Jesus Christ.
This began in October 1978 in a small prayer group in Würzburg, Germany, and has led me through three good decades in private life and fellowship and more than 22 years of ministry as a Christian psychologist.
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I was not sure if I should mention the fact that I was converted 30 years ago publicly at all, or if I could perhaps even celebrate it. At the same time, I knew that it is fundamentally difficult for me to draw attention to particular events in my life, apart from the usual ones like birthdays or special days in the church calendar, whether for reasons of shame, humility or simply inability. The question of which applies here I will leave open.In my mind, I went through possible ways of celebrating, but was not happy with any of them, and nor, in the end, was my wife.Thank God, I took some unhurried time to think over this problem in prayer.
There it suddenly became clear to me that I would like to invite my colleagues from the IGNIS Institute to pray for me and bless me. We found this idea had a quality of celebration and was right for the occasion, because I had shared years of discipleship with many of them and it is such a basic truth that I owe many positive experiences in faith to other Christians and their prayers. Agnes made the additional suggestion that we invite them all for coffee and cake afterwards, partly because the day we were planning on was also my birthday.
During the planning it also occurred to me that one of my keys in the Art of Life is: To celebrate highlights not with make-up but with jewels. (See my section in the Philosophy of the Art of Life)
What might one of the jewels be from these 30 years? What was God’s most valuable present to me in these years?
That was the one thing I wanted to tell the others about before they prayed for me.
I didn’t need to think about it very long. The ability to listen to God, to speak with Him, that was it. How often I had found this enriching and helpful! And sometimes this had then led to real miracles!!
This really is a jewel.
But, I suddenly thought, what would God himself see as the jewel? From his perspective? So I sought in prayer the answer, the divine jewel. I don’t want to claim that I now have 100% certainty, but it came to me very quickly, and stayed with me, that from God’s perspective it was his protecting hand over my life. Yes, I have had a protected life, a real jewel. I wouldn’t have come up with this idea myself. These are the two jewels I will bring with me to the prayer of blessing.
Then another thought came to me, that a few years ago I had written a little story, a fictitious conversation with my guardian angel. In these imaginary exchanges I asked him if he had once saved my life. His answer was, “Once, no, and before I put a number on it, I would rather say right away: constantly.” Yes indeed, I will dig this story out and give it to my guests as a reminder of my 30th anniversary. (If you would like to read it, click here.) |
It was a very wonderful time. Almost all colleagues and team members were there. I have seldom greeted and welcomed them as on this occasion. I had two jewels in my hand which I wanted to let sparkle amongst them. I don’t know what they were expecting, perhaps a lengthy testimony of faith, perhaps a sermon. I told them briefly about the two jewels and then handed out copies of the story. And,finally, all of them prayed for me.
I found it all very relaxing and in light spirits. “The joy of the Lord is your strength”.
Afterwards we went into my office, where Agnes had already set the table. It touched me to detect that she had done all of this willingly, baking the cake and the sweet, nutty pastry in advance yesterday, today this decorated table. She is a jewel as well, I thought.
We sat at the table and then old stories were told, of shared experiences, of common friends, but also of questions which were still open after all these years and for which we would perhaps never find an answer.
I enjoyed myself more than I have done for a long time.
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