"My testimony."

Stepping Out in RED shoes!

- Day 38 -

We all come to those times in life when we feel like... 

Calling it Quits - Game Over! - No more!

At 23 I had arrived at that exact place.  For the first time, I found myself searching for answers to some very big questions about life and its purpose.  Although I wasn't brought up in a religious home and hadn't been in a church since I was a child, I was amazed to find myself turning to God in prayer -- asking Him to reveal Himself to me that I might know if He truly existed.

"God... If you're real, 

please show yourself to me!"

In answer to that simple but sincere request, almost immediately,
I found myself becoming acutely aware of God's presence in our world.  At first, God showed me signs of His personal handiwork.  The flowers around me all seemed bigger and brighter; their aroma somehow seemed sweeter.  The birds in the trees sang the most beautiful musical arrangements I had ever heard.  The sky appeared bluer, the clouds whiter and fluffier than ever.

For the first time, everything in nature

 seemed to point me to a Divine Creator.

Then God showed me signs of His love through the actions of people.  Suddenly I noticed those around me doing the nicest things.  I sensed the love of God as I noticed a mother holding the hand of her child. Seeing a couple walking arm in arm through the park -- whispering and giggling to one another -- brought a smile to my face.  Noticing a friend helping another friend move furniture brought hope to my soul.  And seeing complete strangers exchanging kind words and polite greetings to one another made me believe that anything was possible.

I couldn't explain why I hadn't noticed these things before, but overnight, my focus and perspective on life had significantly changed.  Somehow I was seeing things from a completely different vantage point.  

Could all this be a result 

of sincere query to God?

I continued my search and began to read the Bible.  Though I had read many of the stories before, this time it was different.  The printed words seemed to come alive and jump off the page at me.  With every question I asked, God responded with an answer written in that Book that seemed to make perfect sense.  Before I knew it,  I had found satisfaction in my discovery and I felt my pursuit of truth was complete.


I had decided right then and there that I would go to church that Sunday.  I wasn't sure where.  I just figured that I'd walk out my front door and go to the closest one.  God had something different in mind.  A Christian aerobics instructor named Cindy contacted me to see if I'd like to go to a birthday party with her.  I'd been trying to hang out with her for weeks, but nothing ever came of it.  She just happened to call that Saturday.  It was at that gathering that I met Cathy.  She was sitting on a couch with her Bible in hand.  I asked her tons of questions and she had an answer for every one of them.  Not only that, she showed me where that answer was in the Bible.  By the end of the evening, I asked if I could go with her to church the next day.  She even agreed to pick me up!

Rather than tell you my church experience in detail, I will just tell you what stood out the most.

(1)  When I got there, I immediately felt "at home."   It wasn't anything anyone did or said.  It was the fact that my heart was at total peace.  I was right where God wanted me.

It was MY time.  

I didn't know it, but God 

had made an appointment with me.

(2) People were lifting their hands in praise, praying out loud, clapping their hands and shouting Hallelujah!  Oh my...  I had never seen such a thing.

I remember thinking 

that if God was real, 

that's exactly the way 

people would act.

(3)  The pastor welcomed all those who wanted to receive Christ as their Savior to go to the front of the church.  I declined.   I didn't know who these people were or what would happen,  so I just observed.

(4)  At the end of the service, a man greeted me and asked me if I was a Christian.  My response was...

"Yes... well, sort of 

-- I think so-- 

 well, maybe? 

I'm not really sure."

All my life, my mother had told me that I was a Christian, but somehow I knew that wasn't what He was asking me.  

He was asking me if I was like them -- like all the people in that church -- and I knew I wasn't.  They had something that I didn't.  I wasn't quite sure what it was exactly.  All I knew was that they all smiled.  They glowed.  Their eyes were all happy.  There was some sort of joyful thing going on within them that seemed to seep out in the most mysterious of ways.  It was genuine and I wanted it!  

I had this feeling that it was exactly 

what I'd been looking for all my life.  

(6)  The man proceeded to tell me all sorts of things from the Bible that went completely over my head.  I didn't understand any of it.  But here's what I did get:  He wanted to know if I was willing to give God 100% of my life.  I specifically remember the little voice in my head saying...  "What have you got to lose?  You've tried everything else.  Why not give God a chance.  Go for it!"   When I said those words...

"God, I give you 100% of my life!"

It was as if a river rushed through me.  I felt as if a twenty pound sack fell off my back.  My life was changed in an instant.  I was washed clean!  I felt as if life had re-started for me.  It was a brand new game.  The old was gone -- completely!  Everything was new!  No one had even told me what to expect yet.  It just all happened.  I was born again!  I walked out of the doors of that church, a new person!

I never in my wildest dreams ever thought such a thing could possibly happen -- in a church, no less -- on a Sunday morning. Cathy was so excited when she came back to get me.  My life was transformed!  She said my face looked like one of those big yellow smily faces.

So why aren't we bringing 

more people to church with us?

What's your story?

When's the last time you told it?

Will you commit to telling someone your testimony in the next 48 hours?  Go ahead.  

You'll be Stepping Out in RED shoes!  Who knows... your story may change someone's life!

Gail