On Sunday, July 18th, I shared my testimony in church as part of a call to the office of Deacon. Several people have asked me for a written version of what I shared and I’m posting it here for those purposes:
Several months ago, Pastor Mark Bates told me that as part of the Officer Candidate process I’d have to share my testimony in church – in front of all 15,000,000 of you. Twice. He told me it would be an “opportunity for sanctification.” I don’t know about the rest of you, but I’m not normally in the habit of chasing down more opportunities to be sanctified – they hunt me down pretty good as it is.
I am very happy to be here with you all and I’d like share with you a little bit about myself.
My wife, Kathi, and I have been married for 20 years this November. I am a father to four of the most delightful children you will ever meet: Dax, Maggie, Anna Kathryn, and Zoe. I am a computer programmer and a business owner. I am a gadget freak and a Lost fanatic. Most importantly, though, I am a lover of Christ - only because He first loved me.
My wife, Kathi, recently shared me a wonderful word picture: “sanctification is like doing laundry: just when you think you are done, you find another dirty pile tucked away in the corner of a room.”
Isn’t that where we all are? We’re a people struggling to live this thing called “life”, a people in constant need of remembering the Gospel. That’s where I’ve been the last 40 years, and its people on a similar journey that I long to serve: people needing to be reminded of the promises of God when nothing else looks promising.
When God called me to Himself at age 15, I didn’t know about sanctification or justification. I just had this deep longing for Jesus, who was lived out in front of me by my Grandfather, also a Deacon in the PCA church. I wanted what my Grandfather had more than anything I had seen in my own home – my parents divorcing at age 9; my sitting in the back seat of an old Buick while my single mother drove aimlessly drunk down a dark highway; holding my drunken father while he wept in my arms over a love he lost and would never be able to find again; my living in fear of a step-father who constantly threatened me with physical pain and death; and hearing the constant snickering of classmates while I struggled with a severe speech problem.
My growth in Christ began after I got married, but that doesn’t mean life got easier. God used that time of growing to bury deep within my heart attributes of His Character and His Promises – nuggets of gold that my family and I would cling to while our world got turned upside down.
Through the past seven years, our family has walked an exhausting journey as our daughter, Maggie, battled brain cancer and the consequences of winning that fight. It has pained me beyond words to watch unabashed suffering get unleashed – time and time again – not just on Maggie, but on my other children and my wife as well.
Our walk, though, has not been one that we have walked alone. God’s promises worked themselves out through you – His church. We have been prayed for, prayed over, provided for, cared for, cried over, and joined together in many tears of happiness as Maggie has become well. That is not anything of your own doing – that is Christ working through you and He used you to care for us. That is God’s Promises at work. That is what we, His people, needing constant reminding of.
My life is a living story about God’s Faithfulness in caring for His children and strengthening them when there seems to be no end in sight.
It has been a long time coming, but I’m pleased to finally announce my new blog:
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