Would You, Could You?

An interesting theological question has pervaded my mind ever since reading an arbitrary comment in a little book which I have been using to prepare my Sunday morning classes. The comment simply read, "We become Christians by God's grace, through His unmerited favor." The point Jim George (the author) was making is that we are not the cause for our salvation, but it is a gift of God. This comment, when taken by itself, might seem to say that we would not, or could not become Christians without God. I'm not talking about if God had chosen to not send His son. I am talking about the circumstances in life that occur which would lead us to become a Christian. Is it by chance that some of the teens in my youth ministry were born and raised in the church or is it by God's grace? Is it by chance that some of the teens in my youth ministry have been introduced to God through friends or is it by God's grace? I'm not here to say that God has made me or anyone else a Christian through force and no choice of my own, but could God have put me in some direct circumstances which would allow me feel that I need to make that choice? To say that He has not, significantly minimalizes his presence and his ability to act in the world today. To say that He absolutely, to all extremes, has vaporizes my own free will and speaks of predestination. Is there a happy medium that can be reached? If God were in the business of forcing people, coupled with his love, all people would be Christians. This obviously isn't the case. If God were to leave it to us, would we, could we, be Christians? I may not be able to answer this with the definitive answer that I would like, but I can say with the utmost confidence that there is no one I can trust more to make the correct decision on the right amount of intervention than God. Only a loving, perfect Creator would know the perfect way to reach the most amount of people, and still know their devotion is of their own.