Kelley's Testimony

I have not “Arrived”.  I’m not even close, but I’m a whole new man today.  Interestingly, I did not even have a desire to go to church.  You could not have paid me enough money to go to church nor would I have gone had you been persistent all day long.  Your invitation would have gone in one ear and right out the other.  I had zero interest in church.

I had a sister that I later tagged, “The family fanatic.”  When she found something new in her life, everybody heard about it in a big way.  When she was into astrology, everyone heard about astrology.  When she found Jesus, everyone heard about Jesus.  She was constantly jamming Jesus down my throat.  One day I told her if she didn’t stop bugging me about Jesus, I was going to worship Satan.  I was dead serious.  She was so flabbergasted that she backed off; even though I’m sure she continued to pray for me.

I was a decent fellow; I hadn’t killed anyone or done anything harmful to anyone.  I was okay.  Sure, I was depressed and lonely.  I was living in Charlotte, North Carolina at the time.  I was divorced, separated from my one year old son whom I loved dearly, and starving.  I was working for my dad at a job similar to a pharmaceutical representative.  When my dad and I came up with the expenses I would need for this new territory, we had left out one small detail, my hotel expenses!  I was starving, broke, and could barely make ends meet.  In the midst of all of this I was seriously depressed.  My way of coping was this.  I had an album I would listen to that was very sad and depressing and I would listen to this album over and over and cry and cry until I couldn’t cry anymore.  I was down at the bottom and there was only one way left to go and that was up.  This worked pretty well.  I was doing okay for a man who had no hope.

I was working my way from city to city calling on doctors who we thought could help build our business.  I had money and business on my mind.  That was my goal and focus point, to make money.  There was one doctor that I knew that I felt could do our company a world of good.  I called this doctor and asked him if we could meet for lunch in a few days and that I was going to be in his city on Thursday.  He agreed to meet with me for lunch if I didn’t mind having lunch with a group of Christians.  I said, “That’s fine.” (But I’m thinking to myself that sure I can have lunch with a bunch of Christians.  What’s the big deal?  I can handle them if this is the way for me to reach the doctor and do some business.)

The group of Christians I was having lunch with that day turned out to be a meeting of the Full Gospel Businessmen’s Fellowship and my doctor friend was the president of this local chapter.  We met at the Howard Johnson’s in a large dining room towards the back of the restaurant.  After the usual openings, one of the men from the group got up and gave his testimony.  (I’m thinking, yeah, yeah, let’s just get this over so I can talk to the doctor, and do some business.)  Finally the luncheon was over and I made my way out of the dining area.  The doctor was standing over in a corner talking to a man and me being the nice fellow I was and not wanting to be impolite, went over and stood near the cash register.  While I was standing there, this little old lady walked up to me.  She introduced herself to me, said she was glad I came to the luncheon, and handed me one of her brochures.  I took the brochure and told her I would read it (25 years has gone by and I still haven’t gotten around to reading this brochure).  She then asked me if I was a Christian, to which I replied “No, I’m not.”  She said, “Well you need to be a Christian!”  She told me to repeat what she said.  She wasn’t going to take no for an answer, so to humor her, she would say something and I would repeat back what she had said.  (All this time people were checking out and I kept thinking to myself, all I want to do is go over there, talk to my doctor friend, do some business, and get out of there.)  The problem was, this little old lady kept going on and on.  Finally I came up with what I thought was a brilliant idea.  “Wait a minute”, I told her, “I don’t need to say these words; I said them as a child.”  (I was thinking that this was the same as when you were a child and didn’t get what you wanted and prayed to God.)  “Well that’s good”, she responded, “You can say them again!”  Now you would have thought she’d have taken up where she left off.  Oh, no!  She went back and started all over again from the beginning.  She didn’t miss a syllable or a single word.  I learned at least one very valuable lesson that day that you don’t interrupt this little old lady!  She finally finishes, (and I’m thinking, hallelujah! even though at the time I didn’t know what hallelujah meant).

She went on to ask me if I knew what I could tell my friends now.  “No, what?” I replied.  “That you’re a Christian and I said “Go on!”  “No, really.” she said, and do you know what?  I believed her.  She then tells me I need to go to church.  Now do you remember earlier when I said you couldn’t pay me enough money to go to church?  I don’t know what I was thinking of, but I went to church.  She had recommended two good churches in the area where I lived.  One was Resurrection Lutheran (which I meant to visit, but still haven’t) and the other one was the Garr Memorial Church.  On Saturday of that same week, I took a drive and scoped out the church.  The church doors were locked (and I’m thinking, what’s up with this?) but I still went the next day.  It was like walking into home.  It felt as if the people had been waiting for me to walk in.  I got this “Home, sweet, home” feeling.  I knew I was in the right place.  After the service I went up to meet the pastor.  Now, this church was made up of between 600 and 800 members and the pastor never forgot my name.  That same afternoon I went to a singles group outing since I was single at the time.  Whenever people ask me how they will know when they’ve picked the right church I tell them they will get that “Home, sweet home” feeling.  That’s how Centennial treated me when I first came to visit.  This church has been wonderful to me and I can’t begin to express to you how I’ve been blessed.  I got that same “Home, sweet home” feeling when I walked through these doors.

Before I finish, I want you to remember one more important change in me.  You’ve heard how the world has fun, right?  When I was in the Navy, we would meet at someone’s home and sit around in a circle.  A bottle would start going around in one direction and a bottle of wine or other type of alcohol would start going in the other direction, and in between the bottles a joint would be going around.  To me that was fun!  But that’s not the part I want you to remember.  What I want you to remember is this.  Since I’ve become a Christian, I’ve had more knee slapping, laugh ‘till you cry fun than I could have ever imagined or deserved.  Being a Christian is much more fun than the fun I had when I was out in the world.  If you want to have more fun than you’ve ever had in your life become a Christian.  You can’t become a Christian by just going to church, just the same as you can’t walk into your garage and become a car, or go into McDonald’s and becoming a hamburger.

You need to accept Jesus as your Lord and Savior.  It’s the most important decision of your life.  You will still go to church but you will have a personal relationship with Christ and you will have more fun than you could have ever dreamed.  Do something right now for yourself.  Accept Christ.  You will make the best decision of your life.  He’s your hope and salvation.  I still haven’t “Arrived” but I’m a whole lot better today than I was.

 How about you? Do you have a testimony of turning your life over to Christ, or a witness story about how God increased your faith?  Put it in Patty’s narthex mailbox or e mail to: pattykissinger@centenniallutheran.org

Note:  Have you just read this testimony and want to respond to the author – send me your reply and I’ll see that they get it!  Blessings, Patty