This blog is in no way meant to be about me being a better person or better Christian than anyone else. This is meant to help people understand that everyone has things that they struggle with and there is one common hope, Jesus Christ. I heard a quote by Denver Moore that says, “I’m a nobody that’s tryin to tell everybody ‘bout Somebody that can save anybody”!!!
I have had my share of struggles. I will tell some of them along the way and talk about the things I did to try and become more confident as a Christian. I don’t have all the answers, but I am in a lot better place today than I ever have been. That is also what I want for everyone else. I feel like there is a shift in this country with Christianity. I feel like people are starting to get to be more outspoken about their faith and that is the only way that anything will get done. That is the only way that this country will get back to its roots. Christians have been silent too long and it’s time we take a stand. It’s time we be proud of our faith and share the good news to those around us!
I’m going to give a little background on myself, and in a series of several post on here I will eventually get to where I am today. I feel that will help people to understand where I am coming from and maybe that will help some relate to my story more. I grew up a preacher’s kid. My dad left the oil field and started selling insurance when I was young. Then, when I was 6, he began preaching. He has been preaching for over 30 years at this point. So, as you can imagine, I was at church every time the doors were open. But, just because we were a preacher’s family doesn’t mean it was always easy to get up and go. I can remember Sundays when my mom would have to holler and scream and shake me trying to get me up. I was and still am a very hard sleeper. So some of that time I really didn’t hear when she tried to wake me up. But, there were other times when I did, but I really just didn’t want to get up and go to church(sorry mom). I was a typical teenager and wanted to sleep. But, I never got away with that. I always ended up going (thanks mom and dad).
I went through my high school years and stayed out of trouble for the most part. I wasn’t perfect by any means, but I respected my family name and tried to live up to that the best I could. There was a time during my college years when I didn’t have that same dedication to doing what was right. I was like many other college students in the fact that we had a good time and the Christian life wasn’t my main concern. I won’t bore you with details about what all went on at that time. I’ll leave that up to your imagination. But, I finally grew out of that in large part to my wife of 15 years now.
I got married the year that I graduated college to a wonderful girl that is still the best thing to happen to me. She came at the right time during college. I had so much respect for her that it changed me. It changed the way I did things. It changed how I looked at life. If you haven’t met anyone like that before, my prayer is that you will at some point. She was and still is a wonderful Christian girl. The only issue is that she was a different religion than I was, which is a story for another day. But being a preacher’s son, you can see how that would cause some issues. Let’s just say to save a lot of time, that after a few years of marriage and rough times, everything worked out and we have never been happier. Maybe at some point I will get into that issue as well.
So, for years, I did what I imagine many people do. I did what I call floated along. I went to church each Sunday. I felt like I was doing really good. I felt like I was doing what I was supposed to do. We went to church. That doesn’t mean we were active. It just means that we went. I would have times when I felt closer to God than others, but looking back, I lacked a real relationship with God for many years. I wasn’t near as good as I felt I was. In all actuality, when I look back it scares me to death to see how I was at that time. It’s almost more scary than when I didn’t have much of a relationship with Him at all because at this time I was being fake. I fooled myself into thinking everything was fine. It makes me so thankful for God’s grace and mercy. He kept a guy like me around long enough to realize that I really had no relationship with God. I realize now that going to church on Sundays does not mean I had a relationship with God. It doesn’t mean that I was in a good place at all. I didn’t realize it at the time, but my wife was in a lot better place than I was in her relationship with God. I am so thankful for that because I really believe that is what kept us going. I was basically a Sunday morning Christian and she was living out her faith daily. If you have someone like that in your life, hang on to them because that is priceless. Even better than that, be better than I was and strive to be that for the people around you!!!
Now, from that point to now there are a lot of things that played a role in me finding a much deeper relationship with God. There are struggles and triumphs. Over the next several post I will discuss these things and share my experiences and what helped me to overcome passiveness as a Christian. I will share this in hopes that someone that is in the same boat as I was for many years will read this and realize that they can change too. I hope they realize that it takes some self reflection and willingness to make a change. It takes willingness to truly seek a deeper relationship, but it is so worth it in the end.
II Corinthians 13:5 urges us to do a self examination to see where we are at in our walk with Christ. We should check for growth and see if we are progressing as Christians. Hopefully we can say that we are. But, true self reflection and examination is the key to figuring that out. If we are not taking steps to grow closer to him, we are inevitably growing further away. Strive daily to do something that will help you grow closer to God!!!