Rebekah Beck's Student Testimony

My introduction to the Wesley Foundation began during my senior year of high school. A good friend of mine had come to Tech a year before me, and she began attending the Well on a regular basis. She would tell me all the time about how wonderful the Wesley was, and how she felt deeply connected to the people on staff. Once during a holiday break, she showed me this video of an impromptu dance party that had occurred after one of the Wesley’s services. I sort of smiled and gave a passing comment about how I thought that it was neat, but on the inside, I viewed this rather blatant display of joy with no small amount of skepticism. See, I grew up going to church to work, not to have fun. Some of my earliest memories involve helping my mother take out the trash, organize sheet music, and clean bathrooms. That’s not to say I didn’t enjoy attending church. I absolutely loved gaining all of the theological trivia I could. This knowledge was not used for edification, though. I thought if I memorized all the right scriptures I would have all the right answers. And, as every good Christian knows, to be right is to be pleasing to God.

Fast forward to the first Wesley event I attended on campus. It was the first service of the year, and everyone seemed thrilled to be back. I can remember coming out of the chapel after worship into one of the common areas where people were chatting and catching up with one another when all of a sudden the lights dimmed and this incredibly upbeat music came on. I recall being very concerned. I didn’t know what was about to happen. There was a general shout of elation, and people just started dancing out of nowhere. I was wholly unprepared for this celebration that was unfolding right before my eyes. There were people who were quite good at dancing and others who were not so good, but that did not hinder their enthusiasm on any level whatsoever. After the initial shock of the moment subsided, an intense, tangible sense of peace flooded my heart. I was in the midst of Christians who were simply excited to be alive. Their joy felt innocent and pure and even holy. They were essentially rejoicing in the fact that God was good and that he had rescued them from their sin. All of my cynicism was being pushed aside in that instant, and I wanted to weep because I felt the relief of having no expectation placed on me to earn my salvation.

Now, I had been quoting Ephesians 2:8-9 all my life which essentially says, “it is by grace you have been saved, not by works so that no one can boast.” I had the head knowledge of what this verse meant, but in my heart, in the actuality of who I was, I was convinced that I had to work. I thought that if I did everything right I could earn my salvation, but that is simply not the case because you cannot earn a gift. There is no standard of goodness apart from the blood of Jesus that I could reach where God would call me worthy to enter His Kingdom. This is a revelation that I am slowly coming to understand more and more every day. The Wesley was able to show me in a single moment what could have taken me a lifetime to learn. I have by no means perfected the art of rejoicing in my salvation, but my Wesley family continues to be patient with me and continues to display this simple yet powerful joy time and time again.