II found myself wondering, "Did God really answer my prayer for more Time?" Yeah, I had quit all of my hobbies, but I spent all my new time watching the kids and working - other than Friday & Saturday nights. This didn't feel like more time to make disciples. Then it dawned on me: the kids. I spent more time with my kids than ever before. Under our current living arrangement we could pray before every meal and before bedtime and pray whenever the Spirit compelled us. We could blast Christian music and sing and dance together. There are certain songs my girls love to hear. They know the words and always join in when songs come on like The Great I Am and 10,000 Reasons and Revelation Song, to name a few.
Other discipleship was afoot as well. My Friday and Saturday nights were spent
interacting with a variety of different people.
Through these interactions, two friendships emerged that stand out.
Matt
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| Matt & Holly |
Matt was originally introduced to me through my wife's
circle of friends many years ago. We saw
each other at the annual Halloween Party, and were Facebook friends, but beyond
that we were better classified as acquaintances.
Matt's Church performed a play entitled Shadows. Matt had several
tickets and felt compelled by the Spirit to invite me. The phone call from Matt seemed out of the
blue. I remember him telling me that he
had prayed over the tickets to decide who he should give the last one to. My name was given to him. It just so happened that my Friday night was
free and I agreed to go with him, his girlfriend Holly, and a couple of his
roommates.
The play struck a chord in me. The theme of the play was grace. It was about a wife who sacrificed her own
life to save her non-believing, cheating husband, who would later accept Christ
into his heart. The story jumped back
and forth between the 1950's and the time of Christ. I spent many moments of the play trying to
mask my tears as the story unfolded. In
many ways it was my story. After the
play Matt asked me what I thought of it.
I told Matt that I wanted to share my testimony with him. That night we went back to his place with
everyone. Some other folks came over as
well. A party scene began to
emerge. But, the conversation turned to
the Lord and to the play and to some degree, my wife and I.
I did not have my private conversation with Matt that
night. I came back to his place the next
night as well. This was rare for
me. I usually spent each night with a
completely new group of people, even week to week. This time, Matt and I went downstairs and I
shared my testimony with him. I
explained how God had moved in my life, how God had answered my prayers to show
my wife grace. Matt was moved. He told me his story, and how he was walking
closer with God now, and how he needed more fellow believers in his life to
motivate him. He would later share my
story with Holly's family as well.
From that encounter came several dinners together and the creation
of a Small Group that met on Saturdays. The Small Group included my friend Tom
who had originally led me to God when I was in my early teens.
Matt and Holly now attend HomeFront Church. A few months after this all went down, Matt asked Holly's dad for permission to marry her. I am to be a groomsman in their wedding.
Natalie
Natalie was also introduced to me through my wife's circle
of friends many years ago (the same circle that included Matt). She had joined the military several years
back and had moved away. But we were
Facebook friends, so I was able to see how she was doing. She had married John, who she met while in
the service. She had two kids and one more
on the way.
To set the stage I want to go back in time prior to me
finding out about the affair, but after attending HomeFront Church. Somewhere in the middle there, when I was
running high in the Spirit, Natalie began posting on Facebook that she was
having doubts about her belief in God.
However, she was coming back from her apostate and posting on Facebook
that she was starting to believe again.
Many of her atheist friends were coming after her pretty hard with their
posts.
I posted something along the lines of, "It's not a bad
thing to have doubts. I had doubts,
too. Through research and soul searching
my faith came out stronger than ever before."
It was a post of light in the midst of many posts of
darkness.
Fast forward to May 2013.
Natalie and her husband John are moving back into the neighborhood. I am sitting in my office working that
weekend when I get a Facebook message.
It's from Natalie asking if I could help her and John move stuff from
the U Haul Truck up to their apartment.
Like Matt's phone call, this seemed out of the blue. After so many people had helped me through my
mud I get a lot of pleasure in randomly helping other people. I said yes and came over.
I was the only person helping them move. Natalie asked me where my wife was. She had no idea that she had left me. After moving (and during) I gave Natalie and
John my testimony. They needed a new church to attend now that they had moved.
So, I invited them to HomeFront.
During the first service with Natalie, the guest pastor
taught us about Claim Your Campus. The
purpose of this organization reads as follows:
Our organization & strategy is
focused on unleashing a generation of young people to bring about a spiritual
awakening in America so that we are NEVER THE SAME.
We learned about an upcoming Mud Run 5K. The money raised would go to Claim Your
Campus. I had never run in a 5K before
but I saw it as a chance to contribute to making disciples. Also, the run through the mud served as a
metaphor for my life at the moment and my current "running the race"
(1 Corinthians 9:24-27). I began to
train using a program called Couch to 5K.
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| John and Natalie and our kids taking a walk down Kent Trails |
As I run the race of life I praise God for the other believers he has racing alongside me. Why do I still praise God even though my kids and I are going through a really rough time? I was not put on earth to be happy. I was put on earth to praise God. I could spend my time seeking happiness through sin and maybe find it from time to time. Or, I could spend my time seeking holiness and Christian fellowship. Then, true joy will come as a byproduct. It's easy to praise God when the sky is blue and the birds are chirping. But, my reason for existing is to exalt Him, no matter what the situation is. And no matter what that situation may be, God has blessed us with other believers so we do not have to run alone.
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