I have had a Google+ account for some time now and even my own blog on blogger, but since I've come to Google+ and found this new and exciting way to connect with so many countless people from all over the world I have struggled to find out what I wanted to do with this new voice that I have found. I had thought about it for a long time as I shared my songs, poetry, and photography with these wonderful new friends I had made, but it wasn't until a close, personal tragedy came so unexpectedly into my life that I found what I had lost and this rediscovery is where my true passion lies.
On April 17th of 2013 a very dear friend of my family's was swept away by a raging creek crossing over the front of his property. To lose someone close to you is a painful thing, but it is especially painful losing them in such an unexpected and unimaginable way. I will never forget that crushing phone call that we had gotten. I will never forget the emotions of disbelief and anger to finally grief and acceptance. Although I do not believe that God causes bad things to happen in our lives, as I know that we are in control of our own choices, I do believe that He can cause good things to happen out of those bad situations. This story is not about losing a young friend that we had come to love so much, but of how through that terrible loss my family found our way back to the Lord.
I have always believed in God, accepted Jesus as the Savior of man, and believed the Bible to be the Holy Word of the living God. I was raised in a family that believed those things. But believing something and actually living according to those beliefs is something very different. I may go into my whole religious back story later, but for now the point is to say that it wasn't until I had come into my early twenties that I first really came to the Lord. Unfortunately, it was only a matter of months before I slipped away again - and never truly came back until after the tragedy.
If not for losing our beloved friend, we would not be where we are today in having been restored to the Church and having a thirst for the Lord and His truth like we have never before experienced. It was after the tragedy that I had gone to his family's house and as I was sitting on their couch his brother, who I hadn't really gotten to know until the day of the funeral, invited me to a nearby gospel meeting with the family. I accepted and I went with them that night. After the service, the father was giving me scripture from the Bible on the Church of Christ. I told him how we had used to be members but had fallen away from the Church. It only took that one service and that short Bible study with him and I knew my family and I needed to come back.
At the funeral my husband stood up to speak about the friend he had come to love as a brother and he read out the poem that I had written about losing our beloved friend. It is because of this he was later approached by a man who ended up getting my husband in touch with a gospel preacher from the International Bible Teaching Ministries who now comes to our house on Tuesday evenings to do Bible studies with us. As we became more involved in these studies, we desired to be restored to the Church. As my cousin is living with us, she took part in the studies and was recently baptised.
After my husband and I started attending Church with the family of our late friend, my sister also got the desire to start going back to this church which she had attended for quite some time with them. She was acutally friends with them first and it was hard for her to be back to the place she had spent so much time with him and was even baptised there, but she decided to attend regularly again and so did her fiance who was also recently baptised into the Church.
After the service on the evening my cousin was baptised and my husband restored, which was shortly after I had been restored, I stood outside with my friend's mother as we watched her husband playing with my two small children in the field beside the church. She said to me, "Well young lady, I have to say that I never thought that my boy would be the cause of all of this." Our tragedy was so great, yet the good that has come from it has been great at the same time and there is some comfort and peace in knowing that. Although I wish everday that terrible day hadn't happened and that our friend was still here, I can't help but be awed by everything that has transpired after.
There had been many times during his time with us that we could have taken the initiative to go back to the Lord as our friend was a true Christian who knew his Bible, attended regualar Church services, and even went toBible camps. You could not know him and not be influenced by him or even changed for the better for he truly was just such a great role-model that you were immediately inspired by him. But it wasn't until losing him that we got the sort of slap in the face that we needed, that we met his wonderful family and went to church with them, and that we were finally restored to Christ. We finally realized all too well why they say that tomorrow is not gauranteed to any one of us and that we could each be taken from this life at any time in any way. We need to be ready now for the time for each of us to be judged for how we spent our time here. Living every day like it's your last doesn't mean living with reckless abandon, it means to be conscious of your choices and prepare yourself for the day when you will stand before the judgment seat of the Lord.
It was a long time ago that I was called to the Lord, and I am ashamed to admit that I had turned my back on Him. But I have finally made the wise choice to answer that call and to live my life for Him. I take comfort in knowing that I will get to be with my friend again one day and I have true joy from knowing that I will now have a place in Heaven with my Lord and Savior for turning my life over to Him. I hope that it does not take a terrible tragedy like ours to get you to answer the Lord's call, but I do hope that you will answer His call whatever it takes.
(If you want to know more about our beloved friend, you can go to his father's website and read about the remarkable man that he was: http://www.bobbyworthington.com/ )
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