Wishing she could become invisible, she sat there with her arms crossed.
She knew the routine. Singers and musicians would come to the stage. Pastor would cry as he asked people to give Jesus a chance.
She had sat through nearly three months of this weekly and she had stayed strong, not giving in. She would argue with herself that she knew there was God and she knew she was going to Heaven. She reminded herself she was baptized just five years prior at the church down the street. She was a pretty good girl too. She had the respect from all of her friends' parents at least.
she thought to herself...
Yes, I am saved. I don't need to make a big deal and go to an alter and have everyone stare at me. I am just fine. Just a few more minutes and I can get out of here.
Her heart pounded harder. Faster. She looked up to see her dad, the pastor and the assistant pastor asking if she would like to come pray. How could she say no these men?
She got up, unsure of what was even happening or what on earth she was supposed to do when she got down there.
The three men laid their hands on that seventeen year olds back and prayed.
She choked back the tears and she tried to keep strong.
What is happening??
Tears fell.
She looked up to see the Pastor looking straight at her, and with tears rolling down his face he said to her, "God knows what those tears mean. You don't have to say a word."
FIVE YEARS BEFORE
This girls father had been delivered supernaturally from alcoholism. Gambling. A marriage that was falling apart.
The family started to attend a church but after five years, the pastor left.
The girls mom said, "Can we go to the Happy Church??" She was speaking of the Free Will church down the road that they passed each time they left their current church and were headed home. Everyone always was smiling outside and they sometimes heard the music from inside as they drove past.
"Well, they bought carpet from me in the past and I know of them, so we can try it." the dad replied.
So, that October of 2005 they began attending the Happy Church.
That November the girl's mom threw her a surprise birthday party for her 17th. So many people from the Happy Church came. The garage was filled with people she only knew for less than a month.
THREE & A HALF MONTHS LATER
As she stared back at that Pastor, she realized there was something much deeper to God than she had realized.
He knew what her tears were saying.
God began placing people in her life who knew what it really was to be Christ-like.
Then on an ordinary Wednesday night, a man was giving his testimony for the first time in the youth room of the yellow bricked Happy Church. He told about how God changed his life in ways that were very similar to how God changed her dad's life. She listened. He gave an alter call and the singers sang. Nobody went forward. She was keeping strong once again. But this time something was different, very different.
He said, "Singers, please sing one more song. I feel like somebody is supposed to come down here."
The girl was sitting a few rows back, and she knew that somebody was her. Without giving it a single thought, she made her way to that wooden altar at the front of the building and knelt down. She was surrounded by every person in that room, praying over her as she accepted the Lord as her Savior and repented of her sins.
Less than two years later, that girl married the Pastor's nephew, who she met at the Happy Church.
That Happy Church is the Wellington Free Will Baptist Church.
That Pastor is Zane Brooks.
The man who gave his testimony in the youth building that Wednesday night is Jason Bruns, who is now Pastor Zane's assistant pastor and the church counselor.
That girls' parents are David and Laurie Gaston.
The nephew of the Pastor that the girl married is Grant Ledbetter.
And that girl... is me.
I was born in 1988 at the St. Luke Hospital there in Wellington, Kansas.
And the best day of my life happened seventeen years and four months later, on Wednesday, March 15th, 2006, just a couple miles away as the crow flies.
That was 12 years ago, this month. I have never regretted my decision of making Jesus Christ the Lord of my life. I only regret that I didn't make the decision sooner, but God knew when I would get saved and when it would bring Him the most glory.
I thank God for the people who were there for me those months leading up to the day I was saved. I thank God that they never gave up on me or made me feel less of a person because I wasn't saved. The Happy Church has since grown and has now nearly filled up their new church.
My dad is the head Deacon and a Sunday School teacher, and my little brother and his wife are the Wee Worship Leaders. I feel so much joy to see God using my family in the very church I was saved.
If you need joy, peace, an answer to all that is wrong... remember, God knows what your tears mean.
Don't wait until it is too late to accept Him. Don't let that last song pass you by.
For all have sinned, and come short of the Glory of God;
Romans 3:23
For when we were yet without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly.
Romans 5:6
You see, we've all sinned. But there's a remedy! Jesus Christ!
He is the remedy for your wretched soul and for your pain and heartache. He is the remedy for your loneliness and isolation. He is the remedy for your anxiety and depression.
(I know, I dealt with both of them.)
He is the remedy for your broken marriage. He is the remedy for your backbiting tongue. He is the remedy for your unforgiveness.
He is the remedy for your fear of the future. (Trust me, I dealt with this too.) He is the remedy for when you feel rejected and forgotten. He is the remedy for your soul.
Make Him Lord over every part of your life. Not just the parts that are easy to give Him.
No, lay your pride down and be a friend, not an enemy. Be a supporter, not discouragement. Be a helper, not a hindrance. Be a soul winner, not a hypocrite. Be joyful instead of sorrowful!
Speak life to and about others rather than death. God has taught me so much since the day I was saved. Some lessons I had to learn alone.. Some seemed unfair and rather hard. But, I believe to stay on fire for God, He must keep me under the fire to bring impurities out and to burn out anything that is keeping me from being in close communion with Him. That may include relationships. That may include dreams. That may include my plans. I might share that with Grant for him to preach! HAHA. Okay, but seriously, God is working on me and He won't stop until I make it HOME. I truly write with the prayer that someone out there is able to draw closer to the Lord by reading what I say.
Maybe just one person will do that, but I will gladly do that for you.
As always, THANK you for the time you took to read my words and for seeking the Lord.
He will be there with you when everyone and everything else is gone!
So, place all your happiness and contentment in Him, not a person or circumstance!
Have a FANTASTIC March. :)
