We want you to share your switch story. God changes all of us. For some it happens quickly, for some it’s gradual or maybe your change was miraculous. It’s almost as if God flipped a switch inside you. Your story may be dramatic or it may be short and simple. It could be the one thing that speaks into the life of someone else. Tell us how God has changed you; share your switch story here.
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34 comments:
My story isn't dramatic but I did recently experience a big change. I used to be very critical of the people around me. Constantly picking them apart in my mind and even with my words. However, about a year ago I experienced some significant challenges and through them God began showing me that I needed to change. I believe He did this because my critical attitude was having an impact on the relationships in my life. I am so thankful God has helped me make a switch.
In June 27 2000 my Dad died of cancer. It was a bit of a surprise, and it happened way too fast. I had so much anger and hate in me, I didn't want anything to do with Church, and I basically hated God and blamed God for everything. In 2001 we had our son Troy, my Wife had an awful pregrancy and Troy was almost delivered at 28 weeks. It was terrible, but everything turned out good. But just keeping to myself I thanked God. 5 years go by and we are looking for a Church and a friend recommended the Movie Church. We gave it a try and we LOVED it. In 6 years I came a long way. I do love God and thank him everyday for what he has done for me and my family. And me probably the last person anyone would think loves going to church. Now that is an AWESOME SWITCH!!!! herman yeager
I was raised in a Christian home and believed in Jesus as much as one can as a kid. However, when I became a teenager I thought that I'd "have fun" until I was "really old," then I'd accept Jesus so God would "have to" accept me into heaven. I also thought that to be a Christian somehow meant that I had to be BORING and lose my personality. My youth pastor at the time took me under his wing and showed me that Christians could have lots of fun and be themselves, too. He was very much himself and yet completely "sold out" for Christ. I realized that I didn't need to become a clone of other Christians around me that I considered "old and boring."
When I was 16 I also had a couple of dreams I believe were from God. In the first one, I saw Jesus returning to Earth on a cloud—he was shining like the sun!—and I could see him from across a huge field of wheat. However, I realized as I ran towards him to meet him that I was too far away and that I'd never make it. I began to weep in my dream and woke up extremely shaken. The second dream was quite different. In it I was sucked up in a tornado (I'm terrified of tornadoes!) and as I began to panic I heard Christ's voice say, "Don't be scared, it's me." After that I was completely calm. I woke up from this dream knowing that I loved Jesus and that I needed to come to him. Soon after this I accepted Christ as my lord and savior. I was baptized into Christ when I was 17.
My faith has been tested through the years but I've found that as long as Christ is at the center of my life there's no reason to fear. The many challenges so far have served to bring me closer to God as long as I've turned to Him in faith, especially when it seemed life was falling apart. Christ has proven himself to be the true and unshakable foundation for life over and over again.
God continues to show me where I am still selfish, childish, and otherwise intolerable. But He continues to amaze me with His patience and love as I stumble through this life!
I was introduced to the Lord several years ago , but deciced to turn my back to the lord . I was a man that had created his on living isolated hell. Through the use of drugs and alcohol. In or around the beginning of the year 2000 I had decided enough was enough. I had found a program for alcoholic`s .One day I was at a meeting in a church`s basement . I had to use the restroom . There I saw something on the wall , started to read it . When I was done reading it, a warm tingling feeling came over my body . I knew wright then , that all the wrong I had done to myself and others was over . That He the Lord never left me and has forgiven me.That if I would ask him to be in my life and be the guiding light he wouldnt have to carry me anymore. That I could walk beside him. That poem I read that day that had changed my heart and spirit for the LORD was the footprint prayer. Since that day I try to use that experiance to share with others . That when when you think life is bad and there is no where to turn . Stop ask JESUS to come into your life and he will carry you until you gain enough strength and faith . That you will be able to walk beside him too. And share your hope and the word of GOD with others when life has them down .I havent used Drugs and or alcohol in almost 8 years since that day. The lesson I have learned was in helping yourself ,to help others through prayer and the word of God .Changes people`s lives through LOVE.Try helping other people through kindness and love that the Lord gives you It can and will change your life too .
On a beautiful Sunday summer afternoon in 2001 I was, as usual returning from another day of work. I had been working every day for over a month which tended to be my routine. My career was important and I clearly put that first in my life. At home was my pregnant wife with our three children. This particular day would change my life forever. As I pulled up to the driveway I could see my wife and my two oldest kids outside. When the kids saw my van as I was backing in the driveway they were excited to see me and ran down the front yard next to the driveway waving and smiling. I had the window down and was trying to return their greeting with at least a fraction of their enthusiasm. In an instant their smiling faces turned to horrified expressions. As I watched their faces change I felt my van roll over something. As it was happening, I knew what it was… my 18 month old. She was on the other side of the driveway and ran across to be with her older brother and sister. I never saw her. My wife was only twenty feet away and she didn’t see it happen as well. I jumped out of the van expecting to find my child that I just killed. There she was on the pavement trying to get up. The side of her face was covered with some serious road rash and her left arm had tire tread marks on one side and the impression of asphalt on the other.
Because my wife was pregnant she could not be present for all the X-rays and CAT scans. I was by my daughter’s side for the next 48 hours. When we arrived at Children’s Hospital in Philly I could see the pained look on the ER doctors face and the ambulance EMT briefed him on my daughter’s condition. Twenty minuets later when the same doctor came to give me an update he seemed relieved to be talking to me. The news was good; no internal bleeding, no broken bones and no symptoms of head trauma. When I asked about the change in his mood he revealed that I was the fourth parent on his shift that came in for the same exact reason. For two of the other parents he had to break the news of the death of their child and the third child’s life was hanging by a thread. He was grateful not to have to deliver more bad news.
As I sat next to her that night I was so grateful that God had spared my child. I was also filled with shame. Not just the shame of being the one responsible for hurting my daughter but a deeper shame of realizing that this was the most time I’ve spent with my daughter since she was born. How did I let my priorities get so messed up? Looking back now it is easy to see. I have always believed in God but he had the same importance as my breakfast cereal or a magazine. God was just a nice idea to keep on a shelf somewhere and use like a kitchen utensil.
I don’t believe that God caused the accident. That belongs completely to me. I do believe that he spared her life not just for her sake but for my family as well. I needed a wake up call and I now know that God loves me so much that he poured out his grace and gave me a second chance at living the way he wants me to live.
Soon after this happened my wife and I met someone going to CCV and we’ve been here for almost six years. CCV and the great people here have been helping my family to learn to put God first in our lives. It is not easy, but our lives are richer and filled with purpose and meaning. Thank you God. Thank you CCV.
The Healy's
CCV has been a true gift from God. When my husband and I began attending four years ago I had just completed a bit of a spiritual journey. After a couple of experiences at churches that bruised me a bit, I had sought a place with God on my own – I felt I needed no one but him, no church, no community. I was willing to go to church – but not get too involved. Nope, not me.
Instead of diving into church where women with the gift of leadership seemed to have no place, I put my energy and my time into my job at a large corporation. When I wasn't at work, I was thinking about work. And I really did, and do, love my job.
I rationalized that because I was a Christian that my job automatically provided a 'mission field'. For some people that would be true. Not for me. I was fooling myself. I wasn't doing God's work. I was doing my own. My goals were my own, not God's. My plans each day didn't include him at all. My work-life balance was way out of whack and I liked it that way. God wasn't a part of my life - he just gave me eternal life - there's a difference in how you live if they are not one in the same.
Until CCV...then it all changed. I found that Christian friends changed my perspective on a lot of things. I found that looking at the lost of this world - not as pawns in my career track, but as God looks at them - turned my whole world upside down. As I got involved in CCV, I started to grasp what a heart for the lost really meant. Community did that for me. Commitment to something bigger than myself changed things.
To see my co-workers each day the way God sees them - to see my work-life balance the way God sees it - just changes everything. Since I have changed my perspective – and my time commitments (both at work and away from work!), I have been happier, healthier, more peaceful, and more successful at work, and away from work, than ever before. I backed away from life here on earth, and got a God-perspective. What a difference!
Yahoo for a place like CCV that keeps life with God real - and God in life even real-er!!
DK
http://krack-up.com
God has been with me for a long time. I had a rough childhood and God was always there to support me and keep me going through the really hard times. But I praise God for all of those hard times because it has given me experience. Now, when my students are dealing with bad home lives, I am there to help them because I know what they are going through and how they feel.
God has been working in my life for a long time. There were just times I did not see it or embrace it. When I was 16 I got pregnant. My baby was born right after I turned 17. I gave him up for adoption right away. I could not even handle seeing him after he was born because I knew I wouldn’t be able to let go and I could not give him the life he deserved. I never told his father because I knew he would try and raise our son by himself and since neither one of us had graduated yet it wouldn’t be an easy life... Fast forward 19 years. Nineteen years of wondering, thinking and praying about my son. I have been through some rough times and some great ones but never really gave my life to God. I have always believed in God but like I said before never embraced it. Well I am relatively new to CCV and love every moment there. I believe God works in his own way and with the correct timing. My son has been looking for me for about 2 and half years now. I just found out earlier this month. I truly believe that God waited for this point in my life to bring Shaun to me. We have talked a couple of times and I even found his father for him. That was one of the hardest phone calls I needed to make… Hey do you remember me? By the way we have a son who is 19 years old… God was there supporting me and reassuring me in all the steps. I know the future will not be peaches and cream but it is better now that I have that large weight off my shoulders and know that I made the correct decision 19 years ago.
I grew up in a home where we went to church every Sunday. We put on our Sunday best, our best smiles and the image of a perfect family. Meanwhile as soon as we got home, it was back to normal for our family. Normal was hardly the word to describe my family life, growing up. The church was all a show. It actually made me turn my back to the church when I became a young adult. The years were hard and I tried to go back to church but just could not connect to the sermons that I could not relate to my life. In the meantime, I had 2 children, went through a hard seperation and moved to Collegeville. Feeling very low and wanting my children to have the lord in their life, I got a flyer from CCV. The first time we came, I was very nervous. I wasn't sure what this church was. I was amazed. I could relate to the sermon and actually paid attention. The sermon happened to be about raising your children, which was something I was struggling with at the time being a newly single parent. During communion I just cried and something opened in my heart. My children love the kids program and we have been coming ever since. I joined a hometeam and found some of the most amazing people in this church. I actually dusted off my bible and read it. My life is still not easy, but I have hope, inspiration and the love of jesus in my heart. My life changed with that flyer. The switch was I wanted this for my life and my children. I am so thankful to god for leading me on this path and leading me to CCV.
I've had two switch moments that really stand out for me. The first brought me to God. The second brought me to CCV.
The first was 13 years ago. I was broke, in debt, and in bad relationships with men and was desperate to get out of the situation I was in. I never really understood church growing up. But for some reason at that time I felt the need for God in my life. As I was driving home from work one day I saw the storm clouds had parted and there was light shining down on a little stone church on a hill a couple miles from my apartment. I thought, "I should go there." But I didn't go. It's a good thing God is persistent with his lost sheep. I was working as a consultant for a home party plan at the time, and a couple weeks later at one of my shows a guest arrived late because she was hanging greens at the church to prepare for Thanksgiving. I asked her what church she went to. It was that same stone church on the hill I has seen from my car. She invited me to go, but I still didn't. A week or two later I ran into a friend I hadn't seen since high school at WalMart. I asked him what he was up to. "Buying supplies for a youth group event at my church," he said. I asked what church. Again, it was the same stone church on the hill. He told me, "I'll pick you up Sunday morning at 8:45." For the next six weeks he drove me to Bible study and church, and I found a relationship with God and a church family. I was so thankful and relieved to have found what I so desperately needed that halfway through the church's Christmas contemporary service I was crying. On my way out of the church that night, members of my Bible study class presented me with a study Bible. It was signed by everyone who pitched in together to buy it for me because they knew I wanted one and had no money to buy one.
For the last 13 years I had been going there, straying at one point when the pastor left, but returning later to find that God had given us a wonderful new pastor. But over the last few years, the church community changed. I was growing in my spirituality, but the church didn't seem to be a good fit anymore.
One day while I was surfing the net I stumbled across Dan Smith's "Baby Got Book" video. He was the "Person of the Week" on Yahoo and I just had to click it. When I saw that he was a pastor of a church in Ohio I went the the church's website. All his sermons were posted online. I started listening and was hooked. I listened to almost all of them, some three or four times. I was stoked! They even had something really awesome called groups that met at people's homes during the week. ... But the church was in a movie theater in OHIO.
Then I got to thinking ... I wonder if that "movie church" off 422 is anything like this one in Ohio ...
I visited the CCV website and e-mailed the Young home team because I knew I wanted to be part of a small group. What I expected to get back was an e-mail asking if I was a member at the church. Instead, I was welcomed with an invitation: "We're meeting tonight at my house if you want to come."
I went there straight from work. Even before I went to my first CCV service I had already met a home team where I felt like I belonged. Two days later I went to my first CCV service. As soon as I was handed a paperback Bible at the door I had a good feeling. Plain language. Nobody perfect allowed. Dress casual. Great music! A sermon that I could apply to my life as soon as I left that day sealed the deal.
I'm now in a place where I'm surrounded by people who support me in my passion to be more Christ-like and where I've found more opportunities for me to do God's work. Awesome switch!
I was raised Catholic and went to church every Sunday and had a very supportive and loving family. I went to a Jesuit college and played football. During my junior year, a very strange thing happened that was a "once in a lifetime" type experience. We were playing a team close to home where I grew up so my parents invited, like, 50 people to come see me play. I was starting but the team was struggling and the coaches were riding us very hard. The week before the game, I got this sense that I might lose my starting position. I asked the coaches to be honest with me becasue I did not want to be embarrassed in front of many hometown fans. The coaches assured me that I was not in any danger of losing my starting job. Well, on the sixth play of the game, my back up came into the game and I sat on the bench for the rest of the game except for kick off returns. I was humiliated, angry and despondent. I couldn't wait until the game was over so I could call the coaches liars and speak my mind. Well, with two seconds left to go in the game, our opponent kicked a field goal to go up by 2 points. As I walked toward the other players on the sideline who were on the kickoff return team, one of our captains and a person who I admire a great deal approached me and, with tears in his eyes, told me I had to believe and that something good was about to happen. It was at the moment, that I realized how much the game meant to him and many of the other guys in the team. I blocked out my own frustrations and focused on the team. It was so weird, but this sense of complete calm and confidence overcame me. As you can imagine, a miracle did happen and we scored on the last play of the game on one of those weird kick off return plays with me running the last 70 yards for the touchdown. It was on all the TV shows and in the magazines and newspapers. Even today, it is in books and on highlights as one of the greatest finishes in college football.
Now, I do not think God decides who wins or loses games nor much takes an interest in games at all. However, whenever I tell people about that play, I always tell them that it was just a chance play - pure luck. However, to me it was always something more. That feeling I had inside of me prior to the play was so strange but so powerful and wonderful....like I knew we would score. I thought maybe it was the words of encouragement from our captain, or was it something more? I told the captain about that feeling I had and he said that it was something much more. Was it God? This is a question I have thought about since that day. And despite going to church every Sunday and growing up in a loving Catholic family, I never really accepted Christ into my life. After that play, I looked at things very differently and my faith grew much stronger.
I came to the conclusion that the Lord played a role in what happened that day. That feeling was so overwhelming and is so hard to descibe. I never told people about this becasue I always thought they would think I was some type of weirdo or something.
Today most of those coaches are working in the NFL. I still have ill feelings towards a few of them but now I am able to laugh when I see them on TV. But most importantly, since that day, I realized that being "religious" as I used to call it, is more than just going to church on Sundays. Spirituality and Christianity is a way of life; is is accepting Christ into your life; it is having unconditional faith and much, much more.
Have I had that same feeling again? Yes. When I have been down in the dumps or anxious and in need of support ( like the birth of our children) Christ has manged to pull me up and give me that calm and confidence I needed. His blessings are endless as I have a loving wife, wonderful children and good health among many other blessings.
So go ahead and say, yeah right, Christ had nothing to do with that play that day. Maybe not, but ever since then, I switched and accepted Christ into my life and for that I ever so grateful.
My story is how God worked in my life gradually throughout many years without Him. I grew up Catholic, was married young and was disowned by my family as a result. My experiences with the Catholic church were not good. Because I didn't get married in the church, my children couldn't become baptized and I couldn't take part in communion every Sunday. I felt like an outcast not only with my family but also with God. One priest actually suggested that I divorce my husband in order to "save" my children. He would baptize them if we were divorced but since I wasn't married to him in the church, I was living a life of sin and therefor my children couldn't be baptized, couldn't recieve communion, or confession...Basically they were being disowned too.
As a result of being disowned by my family and the church, I spent the next 13 years feeling like an outcast and like my marriage was all wrong, which created major intimacy issues. When my spouse and I had problems, I didn't let God in(He was always there knocking on my door), I was so afraid that what I had done(marriage outside the church) was unforgivable. My marriage ended in a lot of pain(on both parts) and a divorce. At the time of the divorce, I got involved in a church that demostrated the love of Christ. I started attending but was still reluctant and so full of shame for all of my failures. I started dating someone who was an athiest. We had fun together but after a year of having "fun" that led to nothing meaningful and more pain and yet another thing I needed forgivness for , I had an epiphany. My family, nor the Catholic church, while they might have the power to forgive me and chose not to, didn't have the power to wash away my sins. I realized that God was willing to forgive me when no one else, including myself was. Until I accepted Christ's gift of forgiveness, I wouldn't have the strength to live the life that He meant for me.
I accepted Christ as my savior and began listening to His leading. I broke up with the man who I was seeing and focused on Christ's leading. I forgave all those who hurt me but also forgave myself. Since being saved, my family has seen so many changes in me that they have accepted my choices(which is actually pretty amazing). Of course, they would rather that I was Catholic. I can never read a reading or pass out communion at one of my siblings weddings, or be a Godmother to my neices and nephews. Before I accepted Christ as my savior, this would have been devastating to me. Now that I have a personal relationship with Christ, those things don't bother me like they used to. I'm saddened that my family doesn't have what I have but lead by example,pray for them and have hope that they to will be saved.
Came to Christ on a farm for Delinguent boys, adjudicated by the court.
Encountered Christ in the life of a counselor, with whom we lived, and then heard the propositions of the gospel.
Naturally, as a teen, I rejected all that I heard!
Then, I went to bed one night, hating God and the truths of the gospel, and awoke the next morning, believing all that had been said! During the evening, God had "opened my mind" to believe the truths spoken to me(Acts 16:1)
Since then, it has been 50+ years of ups and downs, "...growing in grace and the knowledge of Christ..."
As has been said, "...through much tribulation, we enter the kingdom of God..." (Acts 14:22).
Such has been my experience. Ups and downs; success and failure. But, through it all, I have learned to trust in Jesus and His word!
Every spiritual battle, every "scar" has been well worth it!
God grant me many more years to "...grow in grace and in the knowledge of Christ...".
Every step is more than valuable:
Psalm 84:11
Psalm 119:165
Grew up going to church...but never believed. Because of problems at home I grew angrier and angrier each year. During high school,because of some rebellious decisions, I experienced a downward spiral that caused me to fall into a deep depression. I remember my dad reccomending that I read the Bible because it would help me. I felt so low that I figured I might as well try anything. I remember reading Psalm 142, it touched me so much that I wrote the date next to it. A few months after that, still in the depression, I went into my bedroom and closed the door. I got down on my knees and began to ask for help from whatever God was out there. I remember feeling this tingle and warmth run through my body, I began to cry and at that moment I gave my life to Christ. I now have a new hope and a new purpose in life. No, my problems are not all gone, but I now know the purpose of going through them. God is good. :)
When my husband, Todd, and I got married I thought to myself how lucky he was to have me. After all, I was a Christian and he was a “heathen”. Boy could I teach him a thing or two.
Because church was important to me he came with me on the Sundays we actually got up early enough or didn’t have something better to do. When we moved 30 miles away he told a co-worker who lived in that same town “Jennifer will want to find a new church”. This co-worker invited us to visit his church with him and his wife. That way not only would I be happy, but Todd would be eligible to play on their men’s softball team as a prospective member.
Being that this was my area of expertise I was a little indignant. I told him I’d visit the church, but I wasn’t going to become a member just so he could play softball! It was probably at this point God started rubbing his hands in glee at what He was about to do.
The minister at this church was very young, about the same age as Todd and me. He and Todd became friends and pretty soon he was coming to the house with his Bible every week to answer questions Todd had about God, the Bible and Christianity in general. A few short months later Todd was baptized and he was on fire.
That’s when I realized I was the lucky one. I grew up in a Christian home with a happy and stable childhood. I pretty much took my faith for granted. In fact, I didn’t have my own faith. I had my parents’ faith. All of a sudden this heathen I’d married was showing me what it meant to love Jesus and truly worship him.
I love how God can use anything to throw that switch. Even softball.
My switch story is really a "switch back" story. I was far from God and in a godless and destructive marriage. I justified that I was remaining in an abusive marriage to show my children not to divorce. What I realized was I was showing them to stay in abusive relationships. One night as I was being pinned down, my wrists screaming in pain, crying out to be let go, I realized that this was not God's plan for my life. Yes, I was embarrassed to give up the fight and humiliated that I would bear the "D" word on my chest forever. I knew that this time I would have to escape to God. That was 8 years ago. Today, I am in a God centered marriage where I am cherished and loved. The road back to God was difficult but worth every burden laden step.
When I die, I want the funeral to be a recollection of some of the great acts of love that Jesus is resposible for. We and the media always talk about Jesus in the past and speak of his great deeds performed under a vail of Love and kindness. How often have you thought of yourself as a continuation of those acts? My family and I had stopped attending church all together and a friend asked if I would give movie church a try. I did and I vowed to give it three chances, as the first was such a shocker to my Roman Catholic backround I nearly said three hailmary's on the way to the car in the lot. I can say now that I have fallen in love with the ideas, vision, and passion of this church. It has made me believe that living is not what you have done in the past, but it is what you do every second of the day and that your life can be exactly the way you want it to be. This church is going to give this area exactly the kind of shakeup it needs to realize that Jesus is very much alive and sitting in your very fingertips and waiting to be released from your soul by what you do and say.
My wife and I are moving with my family to be in the epicenter of a large amount of family in NJ becuase we have reprioritized our life and realize that the root of our enjoyment and purpose in life starts at home with your family and then must extend to the public and the earth.
CCV is like the Home Depot...."you can do it...and they can help"
Ryan and Kate ORourke
I was at Vision Night on Sunday, November 11, 2007. People were sharing their stories and we ran out of time before I could gather my thoughts together to share mine. Here is my story.
I do not have a family as I am single and never married at age 41.
I had an appointment with destiny. I was at the movie theatre to catch a movie as I was going stir crazy from being in the house alone.
I arrived at the regal 24 in oaks. I noticed a sign pointing to one of the exits and people were walking in. It was a church gathering! Something inside me said you have been looking for a church so why not try this one you can always catch a later showing. Apparently agreeing with myself I headed in.
I learned I was literally at the very last service which would be held at the church and they were going to a new building. Where was this new building? You see I too was in the process of moving into a townhouse I was purchasing.
It turns out the destination of both our moves placed us within 15 minutes or so of each other. I felt led to continue to see where this path would take me.
I learned of the concept of a home team and joined one. The home team has been a positive experience. I have been a regular attender or the home team and CCV ever since.
I am still single but the Lord willing when the time is right I believe the Lord will provide.
My "switch" story is about a moment when life started to make more sense to me. I have been a Christian since I was very little, raised by a strong, Christian mother. I definitely had my rebellious days and "Switched" back and forth, vacillating as my priorities shifted around throughout high school and college. One thing I have noticed is that God always brings me back to him, no matter what.
A couple years ago, I received news that I NEVER thought I would hear. My parents never really got along. They worked really hard to keep their marriage together but we (me, my brother and sister) always wondered if Mom and Dad would get divorced after we were all out of the house. So, when I found out they were getting a divorce, I was not shocked. However, I WAS shocked to find out that my mom had cheated on my dad with her 27 year old, personal trainer. I was 25 at the time, my mother, 55. I wanted to throw up. My mother, the reason I am a Christian in the first place, had committed the sin of all sins. She had destroyed everything in our family with this one act. She was someone that I did not know. Was she always like this? Was all of her wonderful Christian mothering an act? Over the next two years, my family went through hell. We never knew when my dad would call, threatening suicide, sobbing (my dad never cried before this) and my mom seemed to be "over it" instantly. She wanted the divorce, he didn't. My dad moved over seas and my mom moved near my sister. My life seemed to be turned upside down. Here I was, about to take my clinical competency exams, finishing up my dissertation, about to move to another state and planning my wedding that was to take place a year later!
In the midst of all the chaos, my husband (then fiancee) was an unbelievable source of strength for me. I had met him 1 month prior to finding out the news about my parents. I still believe that was God's way of helping me through this time because I was very alone at the time. One night, Kyle and I drove to go out to eat and as we pulled in the parking lot, I started to weep. The pain was just so great inside of me. My heart was broken. He reached over to comfort me and I remember just asking him, "why did this have to happen? Why does it have to hurt so bad?" It seemed like the pain and anger would never subside--how could it? Kyle said one thing to me that night that I will never forget. He said, "Rachel, the pain you are having---that is why God says we were not meant for this world. We need to realize that we were meant for Heaven and he wants us to focus on that and not become attached to the things of this world that will cause us this kind of pain." He was right. My parents divorce was all I could think about. The decisions my mom had made were taking over my thoughts and feelings. My focus was only on -How could God do this to me-rather than realizing that God has so much in store for me. This life is temporary and God has so much more in store for us! From that moment on, the pain began to subside. I allowed God to speak to me and for the first time, I was putting complete faith in prayer and God was answering me. I could go on and on telling all the things God has done in the past year and a half for me and my husband! Crazy miracles!!! There is no denying that God is real and he has a plan for all of us. He does not want us to suffer---and our suffering comes from our investment in this material world and the sin within relationships....and we cannot avoid all of that completely but knowing that suffering is not his plan for us but the way he brings us closer to him. Through my pain, I was able to hear what my husband said to me and it had deep meaning to me. My life has not been the same since. I hope this story helps someone.
For the past 5 years, I have struggled with alcoholism. I have been in and out of many rehabs, made half-hearted attempts at recovery, and always fell back into the darkness of the disease. Even after two DUI's, jail time, community service, losing my license, and hurting all those who loved me, I still could not escape the darkness. In March 2007, I overdosed on vodka, valium and sleeping pills. I did not want to die, but I didn't want to live any longer. After 13 days in a psychiatric facility, I came home and began the hopeless cycle of drinking again.
On October 27th of this year, I woke up feeling the same way I did in March - except this time, I knew that I would die. I had hit my emotional, physical and most importantly, spiritual rock bottom. I had a choice. As I layed in bed shaking from withdrawal, scared, and lonely, a switch went off inside me. I knew that I could not and did not have to continue to fight alone; I could turn to God, surrender my Will, and ask Him for His strength and guidance. I checked myself into a rehab facility and for the first time in years, felt loved and protected. I knew that I would never be alone again. God was and will always be with me. With His strength, I have been able to change my thinking. For the first time, I am working the recovery process and I am so happy and free. I had a choice 31 days ago, and God showed me the right choice to make and for that, I will be forever grateful.
Thanks for sharing the link, but unfortunately it seems to be offline... Does anybody have a mirror or another source? Please answer to my post if you do!
I would appreciate if a staff member here at switchstory.blogspot.com could post it.
Thanks,
James
Thank you, that was extremely valuable and interesting...I will be back again to read more on this topic.
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