My Testimony: Sinner, saved by the Savior

My Testimony

So, here we are on some random guys blog. If you are reading this, you might know me personally, or you may be a mutual friend. Either way, I'm excited that you decided to take time out of your social media scrolling to read about some dude on the internet and hear my story. If you're wondering what the purpose of this blog is, I have it written somewhere on my blog site. The purpose of this particular blog post is to let you know a little bit about me and hopefully bring you to understand our mutual need for a savior. Here, I'll talk about the story of hope that stepped into my life of hopelessness, and gave me undeserved righteousness.

My Family

Well, I suppose that a testimony isn't really a testimony without talking about family life. Some may disagree, but here goes. 

I grew up in a Christian home with a mom and a dad, then two younger siblings, brother, and sister. For most of my life, I grew up going to church, mostly just Sundays. We went through a bit of a rough patch with our church at the time (I was about 14/15 years old), and I wound up not attending church at all for about 9 months. During this time, I don't know if I would have called myself a Christian considering how I lived my life, for myself, with little regard for the truth of the Bible in my day to day actions. Nevertheless, mom would drive me to church and always had this option available. 

I remember my mom telling me stories about our finances from when I was just a toddler. According to my mom, we would have times where we were incapable of putting food in our pantry or fridge. Keep in mind that I don't remember this at all because of how young I was. I remember that my dad worked as an auto-body mechanic, most people in the area would remember him, but that's a story for another time. I don't remember this very clearly. Still, I do know that my dad almost died from an allergic reaction to the vehicle paint and had to find another job. 

After that line of work, my dad managed to find a job working for a long-haul trailer/transport company. I'm not sure why I wound up doing this, but, my dad would sometimes take me on these seemingly endless trips in his big hauling truck, going to Manitoba, Grande Prairie. I couldn't tell you much about these trips, except losing my stuffed dog "Peaches" and playing with the gas station finger puppets while my dad would try and sleep. The sleeping dynamic didn't work out for my dad since I would sleep during his driving, and I would play during his sleeping, a beautiful picture of parenting. 

Without a doubt, I can say that my family loved me very much, and I'm blessed to have them in my life, even if they can be a pain in the neck at times. Growing up, I always remember how excited I would get as a kid when I found out that we were heading over to our cousin's house. We would get to play with their tonka trucks and their action figures and stuff. Every now and again, we would get to ride their fancy sleds that had ski's and a steering wheel (the name is failing me don't hate) and would ride down their sledding hill in their backyard. 

My Faith

These were some wonderful times, even though I didn't have too much, and I will cherish these memories forever. The thing is that life doesn't always stay the same. No kid ever has a life that is all highlights, most adults wish this were the case, and life "get's real," and trouble comes our way. For me, most difficulties you would find as an adult I experienced around the age of 16 (give or take). I thought to myself while I was driving home, "My life is great, I've got a healthy family, I have a great girlfriend, I've got a good job (grocery kid, not exciting), and I've got a fantastic car (not really, it barely got above 100km/h), life is great" (me circa whenever this was). 

What proceeded to happen was one of the most strenuous journeys that I am still on today, yet the most rewarding of journeys that I will continue to walk. 

At this time, my family had started attending Parkland Baptist church. It was amazing how we were brought to this church, and as a by-product, I was saved; more on that later. I began going to youth group at this church because of one of my sisters best friends inviting us one Friday night. This changed my life. We were driving into the city to get me my first cell-phone (Yes I was 15/16 when this happened, big deal), and we were going to drop my sister off at the church. My mom had asked me, "do you want to go"? I responded with a no (or some comment with a teenage attitude) and didn't think twice about it. This story happened at the end of my family's 9-month hiatus from church, so this was a big deal for me. 

We wound up arriving at the church parking lot, and I have no idea why this urge came over me, I decided, "I'm gonna go to youth group." This was the start of something that would change my life forever.

When I started attending this youth group, I would only participate in their Friday night events that were to my liking. This was the case for most of my grade 10 year. After finishing 10th grade, I went through the summer working, mostly, full-time hours at the grocery store that were crazy enough to hire me. That summer wasn't the most exciting of summers, but I was 15 and was happy with no school-work. That fall, I started attending this youth group. The story where I was talking about driving home in my '89 Topaz is drawing near. This semester, I decided that I would start becoming a regular attendee of Parkland Baptist's youth group. I went to every Friday night event, and I attended their youth Bible study every Wednesday evening. 

Now, the biggest deal for me at the time was the age of "I'm allowed to date." I was 16, way too excited about this, and ready to start being romantic or whatever. I ended up with a girlfriend in October of that year(woopty-doo), and got my driver's license around that time as well. It was also around this time that I had the same thought that I mentioned earlier " I've got a pretty great life." What proceeded to happen in the next 6-months was an odd coincidence (for me) because every one of these things continued to disintegrate. The first thing that happened was that my brother developed a brain tumor in the middle of his brain(ish, I'm not a doctor, so I couldn't tell you the exact spot) and began having seizures. My brother's "predicament" brought with it a ton of strain on our family dynamic, starting with my parent's relationship, then the pressure moved on quickly to the relationship between my brother and my dad, then me and my dad, then me and my sister.

Simply put, there were a plethora of other issues that welled up and had decided to burst forward when things were at this stage in our family life. A few months went by, into about February, and the relationship that I was in at the time (the same one from October, go Gavin) broke up that month. Shortly afterward, I got into a car accident, totaling my car and leaving me without one for far too long. The only thing that remained for me was my health, and my job still intact. I dealt with these things over 3 months and was struggling with other things that have affected me to this day. 

3 months after my accident and my other accident (don't date when you're 16, it's dumb), I ended up going to a youth retreat with my youth group. We went to camp caroline, and by their generosity, our church was able to pay for me to go to this retreat. 

This is where the rubber hit the road. My life became transformed and flipped on its head more than ever before. I know that there is the stereotypical "camp experience" that gets joked about, but I would be lying if I told you this wasn't a turning point for me. Keep in mind, I had regularly started attending a Bible-teaching church, a Jesus teaching youth group (yes, still the Bible), and had just gone on a youth retreat at a Bible camp. We had sat through the Friday evening session, the Sunday morning session, the post-lunch session, and we had finally arrived at the Saturday evening session. I remember the spot that I was in (although now that I think about it, I'm not so sure). We entered into worship and began praising God. For those of you reading this that aren't sure what that means, feel free to ask me. We started singing the song "Cornerstone" by Hillsong worship, and I had a "chat" with God. Really this was a supernatural act brought about the grace of God in my heart, but I digress. I talked to God and said, "all the things that I've done, all the sin that I've taken part in, I don't want to live in this anymore, and I need your grace and forgiveness. I want you to be the cornerstone of my life." I broke down. This was the most vulnerable that I had been with anybody, let alone the creator of the universe. And the best part about my request and calling out? God heard my cry.

What entailed after this was a miracle in itself. I began singing and worshipping God. Why was this significant? Up until this point, I absolutely refused to sing praise to God. I would give the congregation the curtesy to stand up, but that was all that you would get from me. So, for me to start singing at the top of my lungs was a huge deal. Looking back at this whole thing now, I can only help but think about the way God had worked in my life up until this point.

Thinking about how my family couldn't afford food, or to tell anybody we needed food, we wound up with enough to get us through the week. It showed up on our doorstep in anonymous food baskets, Sobey's cards, even friends randomly offering to buy my parents some groceries. God provided. 

When I think about how I attended a church entirely, lukewarm for living for God was a miracle in itself. I went from a church that didn't teach me the Bible that caused a rift between my mom and one of the leadership that brought us out of church for 9 months, only to have my sister invited to youth group to dropping her off and feeling pulled to join the youth event that evening. 

Once again, I can't explain why I felt such a strong and sudden urge to attend a youth group except for this: the calling of God to me, and myself following His call. If it weren't for the intervention of God in my life, I probably wouldn't be here (cliche, I know, get over it), and I couldn't tell you if I would be serving God and living my life for Jesus. Everything that I went through up until that point was Jesus calling my name, step-by-step, to bring me to himself. 

I can say the same thing about you. Whether you are saved and are adopted into God's family with me, or you're somebody that has been suppressing the existence of a God that has so obviously revealed Himself in His creation and through His people to you. Understand this: God is calling you. Not to some fancy life necessarily, or a life of plenty, but He has given you the mercy to hold back His return so that you would respond to the same call I did. 

Repent, turn from your sin, and follow Jesus Christ. Leaning on His faithfulness to give you salvation from God's wrath by putting Himself in your place and taking your punishment for you. The whole time being crucified by the ones that put Him on the cross so that you and I could have life and life to the full. If you desire this, this hope of something greater than this life, a life of rejoicing in the presence of God for eternity, talk to me. If not me, talk to somebody that has been trying to share the testimony of Christ's salvation in their life. Hear the call of the Father, and turn from your sin.