My Testimony

Following is a testimony that I gave on “What the resurrection means to me”, Easter Sunday, April 4, 2010 at First Presbyterian Church, North Shore (meeting at Ipswich High School):

Good morning.  My name is Rich Mulley.  I grew up right here in Ipswich, Massachusetts and graduated from Ipswich High School in 1980.  I find it really funny that God has brought me back to this particular place to speak about him, because 30 years ago, on this very location, I was regularly engaged in some mischievous and even dangerous behavior of which I’m quite sure he did not approve.

I’d like to tell you today how I came to know Jesus Christ and what is the significance of his resurrection to me.

When I was a young child, my parents spoke to me on several occasions of a bittersweet and ultimately triumphant message. They told me that there was a problem with all of us, me included, called sin. Sin could make my life miserable and hopeless, but even more importantly, it could separate me from the love of God forever. They also told me that there was a solution to this problem by the name of Jesus Christ. He was the son of God who was sacrificed to pay the penalty for my sin. If I asked for his forgiveness and put my trust in him, I would live a life of hope and an eternity with no sin and suffering.

Even at that young age, I understood the first part of the message instinctively; I knew that my motives were not always pure. Now, at age 47, I really understand that fact. I didn’t fully comprehend the second part of the message at first (the solution), but I trusted my parents and sensed how serious they were about it. So, I decided to believe them and put my trust in this person Jesus Christ.

And that’s how I came to know him, the son of God who is God himself. I apologize if this is not the “mountaintop” experience that you may have expected, but that is the simple and deliberate way God first revealed himself to me. What I can say, however, is that my life since that point has been an ongoing series of “mini-mountaintop” experiences where God has steadily revealed his faithfulness, love, and power to me through the normal events of life.  Here are some examples:

Through my childhood, I did not have many friends who believed as I did. I didn’t like church very much and really didn’t have any close friends there. At 16, I was about to give up on church when God surrounded me with some new friends, and then a bunch more during my college years.  Through these friends, God showed me that relationships can go very deep, very fast and be extremely satisfying when they are focused on him.  One of those friends even became my wife. I am continually amazed at the level of trust that forms so quickly between people who have put their faith in Jesus Christ.

Witnessing the births of my three children and seeing their slimy and squirming bodies emerge from the womb left me speechless.  I marveled at the power and creativity of a God who could think of such a weird and wonderful way to bring new people into the world. These were three of the most spiritual experiences of my life. If there are any expectant fathers here that are squeamish about this kind of thing and would rather not be around at the appointed time, I will gladly take your place during delivery.  I don’t care if the expectant mother screams obscenities at me. I’ll even help her breathe.

Three times over the past decade I have suffered multiple-month bouts with extreme anxiety and stress.  As I neared the point of despair in each instance, God gave me comfort that clearly overpowered the suffering I had experienced.

Nonetheless, I often question God, as some of you probably do. When I think of the holocaust, the attack on the World Trade Center, my constant battle with sin, giving into temptation for the bazillionth time, and losing my temper yet again, I wonder why a good and all-powerful God allows these bad things to happen.  The fact is that he has never given us a precise answer to this question. What he has given, however, is this:  the assurance that he is bigger, more powerful, and more trustworthy than I can ever hope to totally comprehend in this life and that somehow he has it all under control.  This assurance is enough for me.

But what does all this have to do with the resurrection? Well, if Jesus didn’t walk out of that tomb 2,000 years ago, then you can disregard everything I just said. Taking the punishment I deserve and dying in my place so that I could live a life of hope and an eternity with no sin and suffering was the ultimate act of love and self-sacrifice in all of human history. But his coming back from the grave is what confirmed for me that he was who he claimed to be: the all-powerful God of creation who was victorious over even death itself, for whom absolutely nothing was impossible, and who was worthy of my trust.

Two things I know: 1) that Jesus is alive, because his power and presence are more real to me than the air that I’m breathing at this moment, and 2) that he will never abandon me, because the price he paid was far too high.

This is the God in whom I put my trust.