By Tom Jordan and Brian Bultema
This article was originally published in PCJH’s Winter 2025 Pinnacle, “Testimonies of Faith”

Brian: Well, here we are Tom! The question I wanted to start with today was, tell me, how long have you considered yourself a follower of Jesus? 

Tom: As long as I can remember.

Brian: So, you grew up in a Christian home then? 

Tom: Absolutely.

Brian: Okay. Well, tell me a bit about, faith wise, what it was like growing up. 

Tom: One of my earliest memories was in  the Presbyterian church of my grandparents in Duluth, Minnesota. I would have been about 4 years old. And there was the start of the service before the children were taken out to Sunday School. And I can remember this visual of the stained-glass windows there and watching the little motes of dust float through the light and air. Of course, I was way too young then to have any comprehension of what was going on. Being in churches was just a part of normal life and I grew with it as life went on.

Brian: As a young kid, what did you sense or feel when you were in the churches you grew up in?

Tom: Early on, I learned how to not be hyperactive! To be still, not to fidget, not to talk too loud (Laughs). And you look around and you see old people snoozing, nodding off and just learned to operate with the rhythms of the church. And, of course, the church seasons, with Easter and Christmas. Thanksgiving also seemed to be a major part of the experience too. 

Brian: What about in the home? What was faith like in the home? 

Tom: It really was all my mother. I had a stepfather for a short period of time, that was while living on a ranch in Arizona. Faith wasn’t a big part of family life then. But, I don’t remember, for those years, if it was suggested to me or if I simply took it upon myself to walk into town on Sunday morning. (Laughs)

Brian: Tell me about growing up. When did you feel like your faith was maybe becoming your own? 

Tom: I always took it as a truth – even from the get-go. Of course, as a teenager you begin to question everything. But the faith was just there and seemed to always be a part of life. Faith always seemed to just have a way of reinforcing itself through my life. 

Of course, I had many experiences in life when I said, ‘Wow, what a dummy I am!’ (Laughs) But of course, I should have known better. I did know better. But I never seriously questioned, at least the basics. It was like food, or air. It was just there as an essential part of life. The first thing I memorized was the Lord’s Prayer that I said before going to sleep. I must have memorized it when I was two or three. It was before I even had any memories and that was already a part of me. 

Brian: In your career in law enforcement and also as a judge, how do you think that shaped your faith? 

Tom: It gave me a place to practice my faith. There are a variety of reasons why people go into law enforcement but one of them is to give back to society. I believe it also has made me more empathetic. My belief is that if I were born with your genetic makeup or went through the experiences you went through, who’s to say that I wouldn’t do the exact same thing that you are doing. Who am I to judge someone in the criminal justice system from God’s point of view? That’s, fortunately, above my pay grade. 

Brian: Obviously times have changed quite a bit compared to those days when faith and Christianity was so predominant. That’s very true in Jackson. How has such major change since the times you grew up in changed your outlook on faith? 

Tom: We do, we live in a time of great change. The boundaries of our knowledge, with every new bit of information, opens up a new boundary that’s wider. The more we know, the more we know we don’t know. But people haven’t really changed all that much in what they need and what we’re searching for. 

Brian: As you’ve grown older, do you think you’ve become more comfortable in living with uncertainty with your faith and just leaving certain things in God’s hands?

Tom:  It’s probably more uncomfortable! (Laughs) 

Brian: Oh, wow, okay! Tell me a little more about that. 

Tom: Well, you try to fix things and there’s just a lot of things you can’t fix. I don’t think we know God’s plan in all situations, especially in crisis. We may try to strive to fix a situation and it can maybe be insignificant or insignificant to what God’s plan is. It’s hard to know when to let things go and when to turn it over to God. And, at the same time, you go back and it’s easy to think, “If I had only done such and such…” (Laughs).

Brian: Tom, this is one question I had in mind. especially here in Jackson. I think there’s a lot of folks who come to Jackson low on hope and looking for hope. What do think our faith says about, maybe, a culture that has a certain sense of hopelessness? 

Tom: Well, depending on how you look at life and how you value the Christian message, hope is abundant. And it lifts you up. It’s not bogged down in sin. Because, we don’t live in a perfect world and we’re definitely not going to be perfect. But we can hope and, through that hope, through the presence of God in our lives,  be reassured. 

Brian: Are there any certain stories or passages in the Bible that you’ve returned to over and over again, and say something like, “That’s the Gospel right there” or “That’s beautiful?” 

Tom: It changes actually a bit, situationally. But Ecclesiastes, I would say, immediately comes to mind, and a certain passage I’m trying to come up with right now. But it basically says, what is the best people can hope for and do in this lifetime? (Pauses) Yes, right here is one of them in Ecclesiastes 3:12. But it’s really, in general, the whole book of Ecclesiastes. 

Brian: Interesting, because I would not think most people would peg Ecclesiastes as being their most hopeful of all books in the Bible, but certainly formative in the way it talks about meaning. 

Tom: It’s the way it (Ecclesiastes) talks about living in the present. If we live in the past, that’s not too healthy. And if we live and plan in the future, the tighter who try to plan, the more assured you can find that your plan will deviate. So, I think that much of this book is written to put people in the here and now. And, that’s a good place to be. 

Brian: What about the New Testament or words of Jesus that you return to? 

Tom: My Bible is a “red-letter” Bible. And I’ve found that sometimes, when I have trouble getting to sleep, that I open the Bible up and look for the words of Jesus. I’d say the red letters do mean something more to me than if it were maybe something Paul said, for instance. And even now, sometimes opening up the Bible it surprises me how much I can find that’s still new. It’s like, where did this come from? (Laughs) This answers what I’ve been puzzling about. 

And, I guess maybe to answer the edges of one of your questions from before about God speaking to us, from time to time I’ll get into a situation when I do feel pushed to do something I don’t want to do. Oftentimes, I can think of all sorts of reasons why I don’t want to do it. But I’ll get a push. And it’s always been valuable, only with the help of hindsight, to follow. 

Brian: Are those the nudgings of the Holy Spirit, do you think? 

Tom:  It’s more like a swift kick! (Laughs). I won’t get into too many details, but there are times when I’ve done something that was illogical at the time, had no reasonable basis, and I was compelled to do it. And, it’s only in retrospect, I look and I say, “Thanks God! I think!”