On this day in history, July 2, 1505, Martin Luther was struck by lightning and the world has never been the same. 

In reaction to this terror-producing event, Luther claimed,  “Help! Saint Anna, I will become a monk!”. Anna, in the Catholic tradition, is the name of the mother of Mary, the virgin that was the mother of Christ. Luther, in terror of such an awestruck event, pleaded for mercy from God and made a decision to devote his life to God’s work.

In the years that followed, Luther would study and meditate on God’s Word day and night. He would exert all his energy trying to live righteously. However, in his weakness and fallen state, he began to experience God’s freedom as he read the Book of Romans. The Holy Spirit illuminated the truth that “for we hold that one is justified by faith apart from works of the law” (Rom. 3:28). He grew in his theology of God’s imputed righteousness by grace and began earnestly to draw attention to the truth of Scripture and the error of the Catholic Church’s contrary doctrines and corrupt church practices. 

Just twelve years after the thunder bolt that nearly killed him, Luther posted his 95 Theses on a church door in Wittenberg. The act of protest began the Protestant Reformation and changed the very nature of the Christian Church today. 

God used one lighting bolt and His story has never been the same.