What is your story?
October 19, 2007During this series we are going to be look at how God radically changed the life of several characters from the Bible. We want to know how God has changed your life. We invite you to share your story here so that we might be encouraged of how God is working in each other’s lives. So feel free to post a comment here sharing your story.
Like alot of church going adults, I grew up going to church; I am baptist from birth! My mom and dad are both strong Christians, who have always been active in church. After being in church my entire short life, I accepted Christ at the ripe old age of 7 years old. As I grew up I was active in my church’s youth group, worked at a Christian camp during the summers in college, was active in BSU and FCA in college and even went on to get my masters degree from a baptist seminary. My faith was strong and unshakable, so I thought.
In July of 2005 my brother and sister in law announced that they were pregnant. This was the first grandchild and my first neice or nephew! I was more then excited to find out if I could go out and buy blue or pink! In September of that year, at 20 weeks pregnant my sister in law and brother went to the doctor to find out the gender of their baby. When the doctors did the ultrasound, it was discovered first, that they were having a boy and second they discovered that the baby had Cystic Hygroma, which the doctors said was fatal. My brother and sister in law were told that the baby would not live and my sister in law would soon miscarry in a few weeks. My family was devastated and heartbroken. We all joined with my brother and sister in law and prayed for our little family member, Tucker, who was struggling to live, still inside his mother. Soon a few weeks turned into a month, to 2 months, to three months. My family, friends, church and a multitude of people were praying for the healthy delivery of Tucker. Yet, on December 16, 2005, Tucker was born and went immediately to be with the Lord in Heaven.
At that moment, I felt my faith crumble. I was heartbroken and mad at God! I did not understand why He had done this to our family and especially to my brother and sister in law, who where both Christians who loved and served the Lord. The whole experience rocked my faith to the very core. I did not even know where to begin to recover from the loss and the blow to my faith. I prayed and my prayers seemed to hit the ceiling. I tried to read the Bible and even watch some Beth Moore videos to try to regain my passion for my faith. Then it hit me. My faith in God was great, as long as He did what I thought was the right thing to do! After reading through the book of Job, I felt God speaking to me, saying, “I am God, you are not!” “I love you and I desire great things for you, but I (God) am the one, with the ultimate plan, not you.” So I immediately fell on my face and asked God to renew in me the JOY OF MY SALVATION and grow a faith in me that was stronger then my “easy faith”, that I used to have.
That is exactly what God did in my life! He showed me He was soverign, He loved me, He desired great things for me, but that He was in control. The passion and desire of my life is to bring glory to God, no matter the circumstances of my life. Whether good or bad, happy or sad. I will sing to the Lord, GREAT IS THY FAITHFULNESS, even when I am faithless.
I was born in Marietta, and grew up with a loving Christian family. I was saved and baptized at 8 years, and just continued to grow as a Christian after that. When high school rolled around, I was highly active in my church youth group and was absolutely in love with the Lord. The best part of high school for me was my group of friends. We had an extremely tight group, and when graduation came around, like most friends do, we all split up and went to different schools. I headed off to Clemson University.
A few months after my start at Clemson, I got a call from one of my friends. Patrick, one of our best friends, had been in a serious car accident. A life-flight helicopter took him to Kennestone Hospital, where the doctors gave the family a slim chance of survival due to his extreme brain trauma. Patrick spent months at Kennestone in a deep coma fighting for his life. During that time, we all spent the weekdays at college, and the weekends at home in the waiting room at the hospital.
Patrick came out of his coma enough so that he could open his eyes and sometimes move his limbs, and he was eventually sent home. Therapists would come to his house to work with him in trying to communicate, move his limbs, and swallow small amounts of food. He was able to blink once for “no” and twice for “yes,” and we ecstatic at the improvement he had made! When I finished up my spring semester at Clemson, I really prayed about it, and made the decision to spend the summer helping his mother take care of him at home and at his therapy sessions. I cannot explain the joy I felt in being able to play some part in his recovery!
Things continued so well throughout the rest of the summer, that after much prayer, I decided I would not return to Clemson, but would take classes at Kennesaw State so I could continue to work with Patrick. I made that decision in early August of 2001, ten months after Patrick’s original accident.
A few weeks later on August 19, I got a call that Patrick was back in intensive care at Kennestone. The shunt in his brain had failed for the third time, and the doctors didn’t see any hope of recovery. His parents made the difficult decision to take Patrick off of life-support. The next day Patrick passed away.
My faith was only shaken before; now I didn’t have a leg to stand on. I fell into a deep depression after Patrick passed and lost all hope of God. I didn’t understand why God had brought Patrick so far, only to let him die 10 months later. Suicidal thoughts were only the beginning of my destruction; turning my back on God was the end of it. I needed God more than I ever had before, but for the first time I couldn’t find Him. I prayed and prayed and prayed for God to deliver me from my depression, to ease the pain, and really to just speak to me in some way, but I never got a response. God remained silent. My only escape seemed to be suicide. It sounds crazy, but my brain was so messed up and I didn’t know any other way to escape the pain.
When I was at the very lowest point, on the verge of taking my own life, God spoke. It wasn’t in a booming voice that I had been waiting for, but He spoke. A girl I barely knew in high school called out-of-the-blue and invited me to Johnson Ferry. That night, God pulled me out of the pit, and put my feet back on solid ground. I realized that God wasn’t some massive untouchable being out in the universe somewhere. He was as close to me as my nose is to my face. Every time I cried and thought of taking my own life, God cried too. And the amazing thing was, He never gave me more than I could handle. God reached down to me at the exact moment that I couldn’t take anymore. I rededicated my life to Christ after that, and became passionately in love with Jesus Christ!
“The LORD is my rock, my fortress and my deliverer; my God is my rock, in whom I take refuge, my shield and the horn of my salvation. He is my stronghold, my refuge and my savior… Praise be to my Rock! Exalted be God, the Rock, my Savior!” 2 Samuel 22:3, 47
When my husband and I were stationed with the US Army in Germany, God called us to be foster parents for children in need in the military community. Being stubborn, we placed several conditions on our service – we only wanted boys, preferably the same age as our two boys or younger. God had other plans. In the fall of 2002 we were asked to take in two girls aged 13 and 15 (our boys were 4 and 7 at the time). Shortly after we agreed, Randy had to return to the US due to his fathers life threatening illness. I was left as a single working mom to four children, two of them teenagers from a very troubled background. Fortunately, my mother was able to come help out for the month that Randy was gone but the brunt of the emotional burdan fell on me to try to reach these two girls and provide the loving Christian home I felt God wanted me to give them. After 3 1/2 weeks of this I had finally reached the point where I didn’t know if I could handle it anymore. I sat at my diningroom table on a Friday evening and prayed for God to give me the patience to deal with these girls because I just didn’t feel like I could take anymore. No sooner had I finished praying than the phone rang. The foster care coordinator was calling and it wasn’t about taking the two girls away. No, she had a big favor to ask. It seems they had a 16 yr old girl placed in foster care who needed a place to stay “just for the weekend”. Knowing I already had the two girls they hated to ask but there was no one else available and before I said no whe wanted to tell me a little about her. The first thing she said was the girls name, Patience. I had just finished asking God to send me patience, I just wasn’t expecting him to send Patience. I told the coordinator to send her on over as I couldn’t very well ignore God’s message on that one. Patience was quite different from the other two girls and came from a truely ugly situation. The “just for the weekend” turned in to nearly two weeks. During that time, she came to me in tears one evening asking to speak to a Chaplain as she was afraid she was going to hurt herself. We had a neighbor on the street who was a Chaplain. He was home preparing to deploy to Iraq the next day but dropped that to speak to Patience. During their meeting he was able to lead her to accepting Christ. Just a few days later a strong Christian family agreed to take Patience into their family as a permanent member. I know God placed us in that position as foster parents to be there when Patience was going to need us the most. I also learned that when I have reached my limits I need to remember that God is limitless in his compassion for us and he can carry us through. He also has a sense of humor. He sent me exactly what I asked for, even if it wasn’t what I thought I needed – He knows what is best if we just listen.
I was born with a hole in my heart. I almost died several times as a child. The Lord miraculously saved me every time. I had open heart surgery at age 7. God again saved me when my heart stopped during surgery.
My parents, who raised me in church, shared the stories of God’s work in my life. People began to tell me I must be very special for God to save me and
that He must have something big in mind for me to accomplish. But I never felt special and I didn’t see myself as capable of big things. I was saved at age 7 and walked the aisle at age 14 to give my whole life back to God. I was at church every time the doors were opened and wore my “rededicator” out. I became a pleaser. A people pleaser and a God pleaser. At least I worked hard at the effort. But I never felt like I measured up nor was I good enough to deserve God’s love. I wondered,”Is this all there is to the Christian life? You get up, try to be good enough, fail, go to bed. Get up, try to be good enough, fail, go to bed.”
As an adult I began to have strong allergic reactions to things that couldn’t all be pinned down and I ended up in the emergency room quite often. I thought, “This is how God is going to do it. He is going to let me die during an allergy attack. He is disappointed in me. I haven’t turned out to be what He planned. I have not done anything big for Him. My time is up.” I began to fear death and also began to have panic attacks. It actually took me nearly a year to realize “admit” that I had panic attacks. I was a strong Christian and I shouldn’t be “acting this way.”
When I began to feel an attack coming on I would take my Bible sit on the bathroom floor and read until the attack passed. Sometimes it was hours. One scripture the Lord let fall open to me was Isaiah 43:1-2. I could almost hear God say to me, “Fear not, for I have redeemed you, I have called you by your name,
Pat, you are mine.” I memorized that part of the verses. When an attack came on away from home and I couldn’t retreat to the bathroom floor to read, I would say this verse over and over again until I began to feel better.
His word, His promises, His love became real and personal to me. For the first time I truly believed God loved me. I had always known the facts of His loving nature, but had never appropriated His love.
In about 6 months time, the devil could no longer
use panic attacks against me. Through this adversity, the Lord not only showed me His love, but taught me that I am acceptable just the way I am. I do not have to accomplish anything to please Him. 2 Corinthians 5:22 says, “He (God) made Him (Jesus) to become sin, so that I might become the righteousness of God.” In Jesus, I am a righteous, acceptable, pleasing, loved, precious child of God.