Roy Bunger: A Story of God's Grace and Faithfulness

Roy Bunger, 54, grew up with parents who believed in God, brought him to church on a regular basis and read to him stories from the Bible. But he said as a young child, he didn’t like church at all. His spiritual life as a teenager was somewhat of a rollercoaster ride, going from diligently reading the Bible and praying at 14 years of age, to rebelling and drifting away from his faith as an older teen. 

What he describes as his “wake-up call” came when he was a young man in the military returning home for his father’s funeral after a sudden death. He said during that time, he remembered in great detail what he’d learned about God as a child and young teenager.

“It was at that point, with Mom’s help,” he said, “that I first openly committed my life to Christ. It’s been a long road since then. I have strayed, backslid, sinned, repented, and through it all God has been wonderfully faithful and abounding in mercy.” 

Bunger enjoys poetry and song, and often relates it to his life. “For me,” he said, “it so aptly and preciously communicates meaning and beauty.”

One such work is one of John Newton’s “Ol­ney Hymns,” first published in 1779:

Strange and mysterious is my life.
What opposites I feel within!
A stable peace, a constant strife;
The rule of grace, the power of sin:
Too often I am captive led,
Yet daily triumph in my Head,
Yet daily triumph in my Head.

I prize the privilege of prayer,
But oh! what backwardness to pray!
Though on the Lord I cast my care,
I feel its burden every day;
I seek His will in all I do,
Yet find my own is working too,
Yet find my own is working too.

I call the promises my own,
And prize them more than mines of gold;
Yet though their sweetness I have known,
They leave me unimpressed and cold
One hour upon the truth I feed,
The next I know not what I read,
The next I know not what I read.

I love the holy day of rest,
When Jesus meets His gathered saints;
Sweet day, of all the week the best!
For its return my spirit pants:
Yet often, through my unbelief,
It proves a day of guilt and grief,
It proves a day of guilt and grief.

While on my Savior I rely,
I know my foes shall lose their aim,
And therefore dare their power defy,
Assured of conquest through His Name,
But soon my confidence is slain,
And all my fears return again,
And all my fears return again.

Thus different powers within me strive,
And grace and sin by turns prevail;
I grieve, rejoice, decline, revive,
And victory hangs in doubtful scale:
But Jesus has His promise passed,
That grace shall overcome at last,
That grace shall overcome at last.

Bunger said over the past few years, God has taught him many valuable lessons, three of which specifically relate to each other. The first, he said, is that “selflessness is the key.” He pointed out there are many “self-sins” that can drag people down and make them miserable, such as self-pity, self-love and self-seeking.

The second lesson, he said, is to “have no agenda of my own.” He said he realized he’s spent the majority of his life trying to get the things he wants, and pursuing things that aren’t necessarily sinful, but in a way that became sinful.

“I would choose a course of action that appealed to me,” he said, “without much reference to [or even thinking about] God’s will and His claims on my life. Then, if I prayed at all, I would ask His blessings on plans which I’d already made. No wonder I was often frustrated and empty, and even if I managed to get what I wanted, it was hollow.”

But through some hard times and trials the past few years, he said he realized his need to put God first, and seek Him and His will for his life, putting aside distractions. 

The third lesson, he said, is in the privilege of serving others and representing God as he strives, through grace, to pour out his life for His glory.  

He said what God’s grace means to him is the “wonderful heart of love which He has, to reach out to the filthy, the downtrodden, the utterly broken, and begin to heal them and make them His children. He makes us, the undeserving, like His Son, Jesus, and is in the process of making us shine in His very image. He pours His goodness and joy into us, slowly at first since we are so broken and fragile that we can hardly bear it without falling to pieces.”

As Jesus said in Bunger’s favorite Bible passage, Matthew 9:12-13, “…It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. But go and learn what this means: ‘I desire mercy, not sacrifice.’ For I have not come to call the righteous, but the sinners.”