Kirsten Powers and the Hound of Heaven

I fled Him, down the nights and down the days;
           I fled Him, down the arches of the years;
        I fled Him, down the labyrinthine ways
           Of my own mind; and in the midst of tears
        I hid from Him, and under running laughter.
                            Up vistaed hopes I sped;
                            And shot, precipitated,
        Adown Titanic glooms of chasmed fears,
           From those strong Feet that followed, followed after.
                            But with unhurrying chase,
                            And unperturbèd pace,
             Deliberate speed, majestic instancy,
                            They beat—and a Voice beat
                            More instant than the Feet—
     ‘All things betray thee, who betrayest Me’.

Francis Thompson, from The Hound of Heaven

Kirsten Powers writes in Christianity Today about her conversion, and what a reluctant convert she was:

I began to read the Bible. My boyfriend would pray with me for God to reveal himself to me. After about eight months of going to hear Keller, I concluded that the weight of evidence was on the side of Christianity. But I didn’t feel any connection to God, and frankly, I was fine with that. I continued to think that people who talked of hearing from God or experiencing God were either delusional or lying. In my most generous moments, I allowed that they were just imagining things that made them feel good.

Then one night on a trip to Taiwan, I woke up in what felt like a strange cross between a dream and reality. Jesus came to me and said, “Here I am.” It felt so real. I didn’t know what to make of it. I called my boyfriend, but before I had time to tell him about it, he told me he had been praying the night before and felt we were supposed to break up. So we did. Honestly, while I was upset, I was more traumatized by Jesus visiting me.

Completely True

I tried to write off the experience as misfiring synapses, but I couldn’t shake it. When I returned to New York a few days later, I was lost. I suddenly felt God everywhere and it was terrifying. More important, it was unwelcome. It felt like an invasion. I started to fear I was going crazy.

I didn’t know what to do, so I spoke with writer Eric Metaxas, whom I had met through my boyfriend and who had talked with me quite a bit about God. “You need to be in a Bible study,” he said. “And Kathy Keller’s Bible study is the one you need to be in.” I didn’t like the sound of that, but I was desperate. My whole world was imploding. How was I going to tell my family or friends about what had happened? Nobody would understand. I didn’t understand. (It says a lot about the family in which I grew up that one of my most pressing concerns was that Christians would try to turn me into a Republican.)

I remember walking into the Bible study. I had a knot in my stomach. In my mind, only weirdoes and zealots went to Bible studies. I don’t remember what was said that day. All I know is that when I left, everything had changed. I’ll never forget standing outside that apartment on the Upper East Side and saying to myself, “It’s true. It’s completely true.” The world looked entirely different, like a veil had been lifted off it. I had not an iota of doubt. I was filled with indescribable joy.

The horror of the prospect of being a devout Christian crept back in almost immediately. I spent the next few months doing my best to wrestle away from God. It was pointless. Everywhere I turned, there he was. Slowly there was less fear and more joy. The Hound of Heaven had pursued me and caught me—whether I liked it or not.

Go here to read the rest.  Powers was an extremely unlikely convert:  a liberal atheist, a Democrat Party flack, she would have seemed to many Christians, including myself, as a lost cause.  But God does not see as we see, and His still small voice can resound in the most unlikely of souls if they once pause to listen.