When was the last time you had to ponder that question? Ever? Oh, sure, your peers might rib you for not partying after prom or you might do worse on a test because your worldview tells you it’s wrong to cheat. But that’s a small price to pay for a relationship with the God of the universe, wouldn’t you say? I mean, is it really any sacrifice at all? So you’ll miss seeing popular kids barfing in the bushes. And you might be forced to actually learn something useful at school to pass your classes.
But what if, to become a Christian, you had to give up everything you owned? What if doing so would guarantee that you could never get a job paying more than minimum wage? If it meant you could never date or get married, could you do it? Would you commit to follow Christ? How about if it meant your family would disown you?
For a Christian guy I know, these aren’t just rhetorical questions. For him, those choices were a reality.
I’ll Call Him Jack
That’s not his real name, but for the sake of his personal safety, it will have to do. Jack lives in Amman, Jordan, a small country about the size of Indiana that lies between Israel, Iraq and Saudi Arabia. Jordan is an Islamic country, and though it is widely known as one of the most religiously progressive countries in the Middle East, it is illegal in Jordan to leave Islam.
Here’s how it works: When you are born, Jordanians ask your father what his religion is. If he answers Christian, they stamp your birth certificate with that label, and as long as you live, you are free to worship as a Christian. Of course, you can always convert to Islam. If your father claims the Islamic faith, then your birth certificate will say Muslim. And you must, by law, remain a Muslim for the rest of your life.
Jack was labeled Muslim at birth. He was raised by a Muslim family and attended a Muslim school. Actually, hormones first got him interested in Christianity.
Jack Looks Outside the Box
He was 15, and his Imam (teacher) announced one day in class that he was going to explain Christianity to them. Curious, the students listened intently as the Imam detailed “Christian worship.”
Jack and his classmates were aghast as the Imam told them that Christians go to church, pray, blow out the candles, then get naked and — well, let’s just say the rest of his description would earn this anecdote an R rating and get me in trouble with your parents. Jack was intrigued, to say the least.
He passed a Christian church twice a day on the way to and from school. “I would from time to time look through the window of that church, hoping that they would do something,” Jack says, “But never did they do what my Islamic teacher said they would do.”
Jack forgot about it for a while, but then heard about something called a “youth group meeting” at that church, and that it was coed. The youth meetings at his mosque were always for boys only.
“I gathered my guts and went,” Jack says, “hoping that there would be extra women and that the men would need me to fill in for even numbers.”
Obviously, Jack was disappointed, but he kept attending the church, figuring maybe he just hadn’t shown up on the right day.
“Eventually, the pastor said a verse and explained that God loves every one,” Jack explains. “I was amazed that God actually loves everyone because that meant one thing: that God loves me! [This was] something I had cried and begged for. I lived my whole life thinking I had to work hard to be perfect and powerful so that God would love me and that I should hate non-Muslims so God would love me. Then I realized while I was a Muslim that I would never have God’s love, because I was not perfect, strong or, as funny as it sounds, hairy. Muhammad said that God loves the hairy man and the unhairy woman.”
Jack knew he had found what he was really wanting — and it wasn’t what his Imam had described. But making the decision to become a Christian wasn’t so easy. It was illegal to leave Islam. Jack knew that his parents would strongly disapprove. He knew that if he made this decision, his life would get very uncomfortable, very quickly.
Taking the Plunge
Jack wavered for about six months. Finally, he couldn’t stand it any longer. He knew the decision had to be made. Jack prayed and allowed Christ into his life.
He didn’t tell his family right away, but his mother knew something had happened. Jack had changed. He wasn’t as selfish, and friends of the family remarked at how much he had changed.
“You’ve become a Christian, haven’t you?” his mother said accusingly one day.
“No, no,” Jack answered. “I just have a girlfriend at the Christian church.” That seemed to allay his mother’s concern — for a while.
“She asked me over and over if I was a Christian, and I knew it would be a horrible day when I told her yes. So I used to say no, thinking that God would allow me to lie if it was for my own protection. Then one day, I knew God was commanding me to stop lying and announce that I follow Him now. I knew clearly that He wanted me to share the message of salvation with my mother.”
His mother’s reaction was even worse than he had imagined. She flew into a rage, picked up a knife and tried to kill him.
Jack fled for his life. He was in a quandary because he didn’t have a church to go to for help. He had tried to join two Christian churches in Amman, but both of them had asked him to leave, fearing repercussions from the government if a former Muslim was found in their midst. Churches that engaged in illegal conversions of Muslims were shut down.
Taking a Beating
Jack eventually returned home even though his mother was still upset. One day he came home to find that she had invited six Muslim extremists to the house. They seized Jack and said, “We are here to beat the Christian demons out of you.”
The extremists began beating Jack severely. They tore his clothes, and several times he lost consciousness. Hours later, he came to and found himself being led outside. “We’ve gotten seven demons out of you,” one of the thugs said, “but there is one more that can only be banished by a public beating.”
“When I knew that these guys were there to change me, I tried to fight them with my own power,” Jack says. “So God allowed me to be broken. At the end of that long night, I prayed Jesus, please forgive me for my sins. If it is the night I should die, let’s get it over with, but if I am to live, please make them stop torturing me.”
At the moment he prayed, Jack felt a strength, a presence come over him. He dropped the robe with which the assailants had covered his bloody clothes and saw that the men were standing still.
“At that moment,” Jack says, “I believed that God was saying ‘I am answering your prayer. I am allowing you to walk through them because you asked me. Now run.’ “
So run he did. Jack ran and ran, tears blurring his vision, unsure of where to go for refuge.
Out of options, Jack went to the house of an American family that had been discipling Jack recently. The family took him in and sheltered him when the extremists came calling. Not long after, the government expelled this American family for harboring Jack.
New Life
Jack finally found a church that would accept him, one run by the international community in Amman. There he has continued to learn and grow in his faith. But it hasn’t been an easy road: His family disowned him. He lost his job, and every time he gets another, the secret police come around and get him fired.
Jack resides in a small apartment, living on his own on a mere $1,600 dollars a year, which he earns teaching Arabic to English speakers. Jack is now 22 and would love to get married someday, but it isn’t likely to happen in Jordan. Because Jack’s birth certificate is stamped Muslim, his children would also be classified as Muslim —a situation not attractive to Jordanian Christian women. Obviously, no Muslim family would allow their daughter to marry an apostate.
Nevertheless, Jack is one of the most joyful people I’ve ever met. Check out the following e-mail that Jack wrote me.
Among the past years, I was asked to go to most of the police stations in Amman. I was imprisoned and persecuted, beaten and disrespected. Now, here I am, writing this testimony in one piece, unharmed, happy and rejoicing, because God has chosen always to save me. There were times when I was angry at God, but He dealt with all of this and has drawn me closer to Him.
One thing I have learned, and because of it I weep with astonishment and joy: I worship a living, powerful God, One who hears and answers, who has a plan for me. He is in control. He will always provide and take care of me, for one reason only, because He loves me.
What About You?
When was the last time you found yourself so overwhelmed by God’s love that it caused you to weep with astonishment? Have you been brought to your knees lately by the weight of the great responsibility that comes from being a part of His purpose?
No? Me neither.
My life is too soft. Maybe I should stop worrying about being comfortable all the time and get busy pursuing God’s kingdom here on Earth, no matter what the cost. Maybe I should quit worrying about what other people will think of me and, instead, do what I know needs to be done, regardless of the consequences. Maybe the kind of adventurous life that I seek isn’t found in extreme sports or music or sex or popularity. What am I willing to give up to have this kind of joy?
What about you? 
