A Birthday Sighting

I turned 44 years old today.  I'm not sure why I shared that other than the fact that it is driving my "God Sightings" for this week.  I find myself wanting to share different sightings than I normally do.  I like sharing sightings of God working in other people and groups throughout the church here at Life Bridge.  This week, though, I'm looking more at my own life and over a period of years rather than days or weeks...

When I was in grade school, I really wanted to do what was right and follow God.  I worked at it, too.  I found myself creating more enemies than friends through those years because I was learning a lot about God's law, but wasn't really holding on to a lot about God's love.  I did pretty well in my walk and even received an award at the end of my 8th grade year for being a good Christian, but I like to argue about God more than I enjoyed walking with Him.

During High School, I kicked back and tried to just enjoy life and not worry so much about my faith.  To a certain extent, that happened.  I was required to take religion classes in my parochial school, but I found myself disagreeing and arguing more than I listened and learned.  My "walk" wasn't the strongest and it just got worse over those years.

When I hit college, I met my wife, Traci, within the first days of orientation.  I was ready to chuck the whole God-thing, but she had given her life to Christ not many years before we met.  She was on fire for Him and wasn't about to let me get in the way.  I joke about her telling me not to propose unless I was serious.  There was a "6-feet-under" clause to our wedding I needed to be ready to accept.  But I don't often share the serious part of her search for a life-partner.  She wasn't willing to marry me until she knew I was a man of God.  My faith was her most important criteria in searching for a life-partner.  When we married, I believed, but I still had a long way to go.

We were married in our fourth year of college, bought our first "fixer upper house," and landed good jobs upon graduation.  In fact, my 21st birthday was spent removing really bad carpeting from that first house and trying to sand down the floors to refinish them.  The project was a disaster and we ended up ordering carpeting.  We have a picture with my mom giving me a cupcake with a candle in it while we worked on the house that day.  I was off to the races of adulthood.

Traci and I searched for churches while in that first neighborhood, but never really found one that "fit" us.  When we started having children a few years later, we found a church that worked well for us.  It wasn't long before I recommitted my life to Christ, went down into the waters of baptism, and started participating in the life of the Church.

We really needed the church during those years.  Raising children was a lot harder than I think either of us were willing to admit.  We were were both good, capable, competent, hard workers; but children didn't respond like professors or bosses.  They needed a totally different approach.  They needed our selfless love.

Our families were always a great blessing to us.  But the church family was the unexpected blessing.  We found ourselves moved by God-centered music, challenged by Truth-telling sermons, and learning how to "grow up" as we were trying to help our children do the same.  We poured out our hearts in various small groups, found ourselves as recipients of much prayer, and learned to be less selfish - praying for others as well.  We participated in several ministries, finding meaning and purpose in our time and enjoyed seeing the fruit of our labor as others were being served.  It was a time when we truly learned to "grow up" in Christ.

Eventually, God provided a way for me to go to Seminary, then led us to our current home where we've planted a church, home-schooled our children, and learned what it means to become a minister of Christ.  My daughter called me today to wish me a happy birthday.  We were talking about our vocations and I mentioned to her that she gets to see the fruit of her labor and that's a little harder for me.  She responded, "You have a wife and three children who love you very much.  Isn't that something you can see?"  "Yes, you're right," I said.  Then I tried to joke, "I wonder how that happened!"  "You know the answer," she said. "God."  She's right.  God made all the difference in my life.

Well, that's my God-sighting for this week.  It's a 44-year sighting that began, for me, when I was given to my parents and they received me as a gift from God.  For 44 years He has worked in and through the people around me to help me grow stronger and stronger in my walk with Him.  Even the ones who tried to pull me away from God or tried to hurt my walk, He used for my good and to help me grow.  He never ceases to amaze me.  God is good all the time.  And all the time, God is good.

I hope you will enjoy Him far beyond this week.  Should you be in town, I hope we can see each other this Sunday and enjoy praising Him together.

Thank you all for being a part of my life

and for letting me be a part of yours.

Pete