Is Conversion a “Train Wreck”?

“How do I tell you abut my conversion to Christianity without making it sound like an alien abduction or a train wreck? Truth be told, it felt like a little of both.” Rosaria Butterfield returns to the train wreck metaphor several times in The Secret Thoughts of an Unlikely Convert (which I review here), and she justifies it with ample evidence. Her encounter with the Gospel turned everything upside-down and inside-out, so much so that her current life bears almost no resemblance to her life before Christ.

In my own ministry, however, I have witnessed the exact opposite. I have known people whose lives were chaotic and miserable, and conversion introduced them into a process of increasing orderliness and peace. When the Gospel requires converts to take up a new life and leave everything behind, some people are very glad to do so.

For people like Butterfield once was, sin “works;” that is, their particular sins give order and structure to their lives which enable them to succeed in the world, just as Butterfield’s pride and self-centeredness/exaltation drove her to success in academia. For others, sin leaves them a dysfunctional mess, unable to survive in the world. (This is the overall portrait of the fool’s life painted by the Proverbs.)

I’m not arguing with Rosaria Butterfield so much as supplementing her insights. Yes, conversion really can wreck a person’s life. But when a person is already a wreck, conversion can be the first real opportunity to build a life.