You know, after figuring out that you are not the center of the universe, I’m sure that it's easy to ask yourself what else there is to do. You've started to move yourself from the center and God into that space. Perhaps you have decided to look at other aspects of your life and are making some changes there as well. Yet, when you look at the road you are now on, it can be hard to figure out where you are going, as looking forward all you see is the horizon.
Today I'm going to tell you a little about my trip thus far, to give you an example of where I've been and how I got to where I am today. So here we go with the abbreviated version:
Let's start at the beginning. In elementary school I was the fat kid. I was picked on all of the time, which is pretty much where my sense of humor started. I got to the point where I started making jokes before anyone else so that I didn't get picked on, moving the attention elsewhere. In 6th grade I really began to lose the weight with the help of playing a number of sports. Yes, the sense of humor stayed.
In High School I played basketball through my Junior year and I was the first 4 year starter for PCHS soccer and captain for my Jr. and Sr. years. Senior year I put my focus into Port Clinton DECA (Business Program). This is where I gained a lot of public speaking and community service experience. DECA, along with my soccer skills, led me to being recruited to Defiance College (a D3 school - as the D1 & D2 wanted to red shirt me, and I didn't want to go to school longer than I had to!) for soccer and a new program called Service Leaders.
Long story short, I started to party a lot as I entered college. I spent most weekends enjoying the freedom of being at college and was very social trying to spend as much time at the girls’ dorm as I could. This went on for the most of my freshman and sophomore years. I was drinking a lot and wasn't even making a number of classes, almost causing me to lose my Service Leader Scholarship and lead to me not playing soccer after my freshman year.
Midway through my sophomore year I started to realize I needed to clean myself up. The very next week after I made this decision, a buddy of mine introduced me to a girl he wanted to ask out. She was on the women's soccer team and yet I'd never seen her before. If you hadn't guessed, that was Traci. I liked her from the first time I met her, but I didn't try too much since I didn't want to make my friend mad. Instead, I became good friends with her over time. Then, after some time my buddy decided he liked his new crush, which allowed me to ask Traci out. We actually went out on a date and had our first kiss that night. She actually told me at the end of the date that she wanted to be just friends as she didn't feel a spark, and I didn't want to ruin our friendship so I lied and agreed to that.but it didn't stop me.
Around 2 months later we were dating full time. A year later I took her to Europe on a trip my dad needed chaperons for (he's a French teacher at PCHS and needed adults to go along with the students). I proposed to the love of my life on top of the Eiffel Tower on June 11, 1998. Lucky for me, she said yes! Not only was she the woman for me, but she was a Christian and was opening my eyes up to things that I didn't get/understand from my Catholic upbringing. She kept teaching me while learning things herself. We were married a year and a day after getting engaged, on June 12, 1999. We were living down in Sidney, Ohio and going to church. This is when I really started to get what I used to call "The God Thing". Through Bible studies and my beautiful wife I was becoming a Christian, though at that point I hadn't made a full commitment.
After Traci had taught second grade for two years and after we had Noah, we decided that we wanted to be closer to the grandparents. So, we moved in with my parents in Port Clinton while I looked for a job closer to both of our parents. (I had taken a job at a distribution center as a manager after college.) I took some part time work at a local hotel and eventually was hired by Boy Scouts of America as an executive for Erie and Huron Counties. We had to be centrally located in the counties, so we moved to Norwalk.
After moving we began looking for a church that was like the one we went to in Sidney. The second church we made it to was NAC, a church we’d driven past many times on our trips to visit Traci’s family in New London. We felt so at home on just our first visit that we decided it was the place for us. A couple of weeks later (Oct 20, 2001) a British guy comes to the house and talks to us, and changed my life for ever. He taught me how to invite Jesus into my heart for good. He then invited us to a small group he was starting with couples just like us, and since we'd been in a small group before we jumped right in.
Since that day my life has been different. We've made it through some times that would have probably destroyed me in the past. From losing a job to a miscarriage, God has worked in my life for the good. He's been faithful and really working in my life every day. I have calmness in my life because I KNOW that God is there and that He IS working in my life. I firmly believe that He put Traci in my life at just the right time as I, even though looking to change, could have easily headed further down the slope I was on. He provided me another person to care for, to support me, and lead me back to Him! It was according to His plan that we met when we did, that we didn't connect right away, etc. I thank Him every day as I am the luckiest man in the world because I have such a caring wife / best friend and a Heavenly Father who cared enough for me to send her my way!
Now I'm an elder at NAC and attempting to be a light in the world for him each and every day. I have a mentor and am mentoring others myself. I focus myself at the start of every day by reading (and believe me this is hard as I hate reading) something that will focus me on God instead of the world or myself.
I'm not going to lie and tell you that this is easy or that it all happened right away. It took time to get here and it wasn't my timing, but God's timing that it all fell into place. I feel I was to go through everything I did to be where I am today - and that there is a reason for all of it.
So, what do you think? Do you think that being a Christian and changing your life is too hard and not worth it? Is there a reason why God has you in this place in time doing what you are right now? Maybe you work at a place that has many co-workers who are searching for something else in their life and God wants to use YOU to bring them to Him. Maybe you have gone through a foreclosure in the past and could be there to walk along side someone else going through that same thing right now. Maybe you’ve gone through a job loss before and could do the same with someone who lost theirs over the past few months.
God knows where you are in your life and why you are there right now. He has a plan for each one of us, something I think that I’ve shown above. When I left the Catholic church as a disgruntled teenager I never expected to be an elder at a church like I am today. I got really into rap and hard rock music when I was a teen, and now advocate the same types of music today to my children – just now the lyrics are focused on God and not on how horrible our lives are, sex, name calling, etc.
In conclusion I ask you this question: how has your life changed? You are never going to be perfect as you were not created to be perfect. We are here to bring others to Him. Our lives need to be an example of that in every way we can make them. It’s not going to be a fast transition for most. It’s not going to be easy for a lot of people either. What I can leave you with is that the change is worth it! If you haven’t yet take that first step towards a relationship with Jesus. I would love to discuss that with you and to some day read your testimony. If you already have started along the road be encouraged as you are not alone on your journey – He is walking right along side you as He is with me, even when I didn’t know He was there.
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