Alright so it’s a bit early to start posting about this except to say I’m super pumped about this. This morning Leo and I went mountain biking and it was totally rockin with the pouring rain. So sick. Anyways so we were walking through target doing my christmas shopping when I get a call from none other than Daniel Friday. He called to ask me to share my testimony one morning at Gatlinburg this year. Ha I was kinda shocked. I first off didn’t know they asked people like me to randomly share their testimony. Maybe there was a reason, or maybe it was just God. Regardless. I accepted the challenge of speaking in front of 300 people and telling them all about my journey into God’s arms. So since I figured it was a good idea to type it up and then condense it into a few bullet points, I decided to type it up here. So here it goes guys. The rough draft:
So, like most people here, I was born and raised in a Christian home, but at the age of 5, my parents got divorced. This divorce was really what defined most of my walk with the Lord. For three years, I didn’t really see my dad much until he reappeared and visited us at vacations and whatnot. We had a pretty strained relationship, but I still worshiped him like any 8 year old would. When I turned 11, I started to get angry a lot. It came to the point where I would blame my dad for just about everything.
Cause you know the Presbyterian Church teaches you a lot about God, and Briarwood Presbyterian Church was the reason I came to know the Lord. God is always faithful, God is loving, God will always be there for you. But when I looked at my dad and compared him to what I knew loving father was. I couldn’t help but be infuriated at the fact that he was nothing like the father that I should have. I wasn’t mad at God, I was mad at my father for falling short of perfection. It grew to the point where I didn’t want to see him or have anything to do with him. So one Christmas instead of being here at Gatlinburg I was with my dad over in Georgia. I was pretty unhappy over missing Gatlinburg, so I spent most of my time watching TV and deciding not to spend time with my dad.
Well, one morning, I think it was the 28th, my dad called us in and decided to have a talk. He wanted to know what he was doing wrong. Why were we so uncaring for him? Was he the bad guy? I had no response and so I sat there and said nothing. Afterwards I went into my room and sat down and really prayed for the first time in a long time. Now I mentioned earlier that I had become a Christian, and I did, but this was the point in my life where I really realized that I needed a personal relationship with God. A relationship where I talked with God regularly and where I knew what it meant to know Him. So I prayed to God. I asked God what I needed to do, who I should talk to, and why He wanted me to love him. I mean, this guy had caused almost all of my problems. He was the reason for all my problems. And I was called to love him?
Well Jay was talking at BYG about a month later when I realized what God was telling me. Jay was telling us that we were called, not to judge, but to love. Matthew 7:1-5 We were called to love the unlovable. “For even the gentiles love those who love them back.” God loves us even though we turned our back on Him. He loved us enough to send His son to die for us. So there and then I began to realize that God wanted me to love my father. Not judge him for being imperfect, but to try and love him as much as possible.
This taught me a lot in my walk with God, and I think was essentially my coming to Christ. I had prayed the prayer as a child and accepted him as my Lord and Savior in middle school, and at this point, I realized what it truly meant to have Him as my Lord. He was truly in charge of my life and has taught me to love everyone I meet as much as I possibly can. So that is the story of how I came to know and walk with the Lord.
So that’s my story. Let me know what you think.
----The Walking Man
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