Walking By Faith, Tripping Daily

 

My Faith Walk began as a child of 9, when I asked Jesus to save me. At 9 years of age, it was a simple decision based more on fear of God's Wrath, as the church we attended used a lot of "hell, fire and brimstone" style preaching and not so much about God's love and grace. When I was 14 I made a more 'formal" commitment to follow Christ, a public one followed by being baptized. We were still attending the same church and I believed strongly in being approved by the elders of our congregation. 

When I was 16, my parents loaded up my little brother and me in a motor home and set out on a 4-month journey around the USA. I didn't know it at the time, but my parents had become quite disenchanted with the church we attended. So, it was an eye-opening experiencing for all of us as each week we found ourselves attending different churches of different denominations. I was amazed to experience churches that had live music, even drums! (our church had no musical instruments not even a piano, everything was sung acapella and sounded like a dirge!) I was amazed to experience churches where the LOVE and GRACE of Christ was first and foremost expressed. Upon returning home my parents officially left that church and started attending another church that was a bible based evangelical conservative that preached hope and joy in following Christ. 

I attended the youth group and enjoyed the time there but it wasn't long after our return home from the trip that I started dating the young man who I would eventually marry (and later divorce but that's a story for another time) Because of him I started going to the church his family belonged to, getting involved with their youth group and experiencing another denomination that was different in many ways from what I had so far been exposed to. It was good; bible based but more liberal. It became my church home for many, many years. I had many great experiences over those years that taught me more about Christ's love, forgiveness and grace. After my divorce, my church family was instrumental in guiding me along a path of healing from the years of trauma I'd lived through. It was also through this church that I met the love of my life and we married and we began serving together in our community.

About 15 years ago after growing more and more uncomfortable with some of the liberal choices taking place in the denomination and we made another switch to a non-denominational conservative evangelical church that more closely aligned with our interpretation of the bible.

All of this to say.... I've been on this Faith Journey for a LOT of years. I stumble, trip, and fall more than I like to admit. There's been times I've gotten off the path, gotten lost, made big messes and struggled to find my way back but even in those times of feeling lost, I didn't lose my faith in Christ. Jesus has been faithful in meeting me, bringing me back to His True Path and loving me despite all of my failings.

So, yes, I walk by faith. And I trip daily. And I get back up and go again.