Conversion.

I am currently reading a book on Christian conversion for a class that I will be taking in the Spring.  This books highlights nicely what I have come to believe over the course of my life: Conversion is, for many people, not a simple, one-time event.  Though there are certain things that all conversions have in common, the timeframe can be an instant or a decade.  Furthermore, for those of us who had a gradual conversion, we may not be able to say with certainty the moment in time we "switched sides" (perhaps it was not even a temporal event at all?).  

I illustrate this with a common occurrence at the church I attended as a youth.  Immediately after opening announcements and a song or two, we were instructed to greet those sitting near us.  This was a tall order for us introverts.  Sometimes, in an attempt to help generate conversation, we were asked to tell one another when our "spiritual birthday" was.  This rather cheesy term referred to the moment in time we were "saved" (never mind that in addition to the past tense [we were saved], there are present tense [we are being saved] and future tense [we will be saved] descriptions of salvation in the Bible).  Many people spouted off the date in question instantly.  March 21, 1974.  September 4, 1992.  I always responded with, "I don't know."  I always felt a little guilty about this.  After all, If I don't know my spiritual birthday, how can I know I'm saved?  

As a five- or-six-year-old, I made a decision to accept Jesus and got baptized.  Of course, I was a small child, so I didn't fully understand the implications behind this act.  Over the next ten years,  there were several important events in my life that were relevant to my spiritual condition.  Even as a veteran seminary student, there was a particular series of events that perhaps has had the most impact on me spiritually.  My relationship with God changed drastically (for the better).  

So when was I saved?  When did I cross over?  When I was five?  When I was 25?  I can't really answer that question, and I'm not even sure that it has an answer.  The only thing I can say with certainty is 

I once was lost, but now am found,

Was blind, but now I see.