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I was born in Wurzberg,
Germany, in June of 1977, while my dad was stationed in Germany. I grew up
in Iowa after my parents were divorced a couple of years after my birth.
Now contrary to most people’s beliefs you can grow up in Iowa and not be a
farmer or a wrestler, and no, potatoes are not grown there either. I grew
up in Carlisle which was a town of about 3000 and about 10 minutes from Des
Moines. So we had the small town living with the luxury of a big city close
by. I was introduced to church at an early age and was exposed to the truth
but my family quickly faded from the church after infighting and the firing
of the pastor due to his unwillingness to teach anything but the truth. So
we never returned to church and Jesus faded from my memory. After
graduating Carlisle High School in 1995 I enrolled in Des Moines Area
Community College to begin the road to becoming a veterinarian. After a
year of classes and working at the same store I did in high school I felt
the call to spread my wings and leave home, that and the amount of money I
would have in student loans at the end of school did not seem so appealing.
Now the Army recruiters had
been hounding me since high school and I was strictly against being used as
a guinea pig for the military’s experiments. Well one early morning a
recruiter called and while I was still more asleep then awake he cunningly
slid himself into my schedule. Well when next week came there was a knock
on the door and the recruiter stood at my door and I was taken by surprise
and asked him what he was doing here. He informed me that I had made this
appointment with him. So I figured I would sit and listen to what he had to
say. After his pitch about the great barracks, food, benefits and all the
world traveling I would be doing I was sold. I told him I wanted to jump
from airplanes and I wanted the hardest job he could give me. He smiled and
asked me if I had heard of the 82nd Airborne Division and the
infantry. I answered no to both and he knew he had a sucker on the line and
all he needed to do was set the hook. The next day I went to his office to
watch some videos on what this infantry stuff was about and knew it was what
I was looking for. Little did I know what I was getting myself into.
After 3 years at Fort Bragg
with 2nd 325 I couldn’t wait to leave the wretched place. So I
reenlisted to go to Hawaii for a nice vacation. After 6 months I couldn’t
wait to get back home to Fort Bragg. While in Hawaii I got married and
shortly after my wonderful son was born, we were on our way to divorce. My
pride was rampant in everything I did and I was to young to understand that
I was failing as a husband and father. Well once my wife told me she was
leaving and taking my son back to New York I was crushed. Everyday was a
struggle going home after work and looking back I can see God’s hand all
over the situation. My pride was broken and I was humbled. I hit rock
bottom and dealt with some depression but knew that I was a changed man.
Though I still did not acknowledge God. I eventually got my son back and
began to climb back up. As new bad habits would form they would be quickly
stamped out by what I though were unfortunate circumstances but looking back
God’s hand was all over it preventing me from giving myself over to all my
fleshly desires. Yet I still did not acknowledge God. While in Hawaii I
began working on changing my job to become a Career Counselor. This would
make it easier being a single parent and I went to school in route to Fort
Bragg. After reporting to my unit we deployed to Iraq were I finally met my
soul mate, Samantha. Upon return from the deployment we moved in together
and lived in ignorant bliss. I began to become unhappy with everything, yet
I had everything I could have asked for. I was successful, had every
material thing I could think of, had my son, and had the woman I knew I was
meant to be with. Yet I had this hole in the center of me that I couldn’t
explain. I kept getting these flashes of panic at what lies beyond this
life. I began to ask myself is this all there is and if so what a waste. I
began to fear death for the first time in my life.
Little did I know that I had
come to my appointed time that my rebellion would end and my knees would
bend and I would cry out for a Savior. I was enrolled in college to try to
finish a general education degree and needed to take an elective and of the
30 or so classes that I could choose from Introduction to the New Testament
kept calling me every time I would pick up the list to look over it again.
I thought it would be neat to learn the history of this Christianity thing.
I had heard it all before but I was totally into, “You live your life the
way you want and I will live the way I want but don’t push your ideas onto
me.” After the class finished in December I literally felt the hunger for
more and the disappointment that it was over. I continued on with everyday
life and the hole continued to get bigger and I was getting even more
unhappy. One day in January I was at work and I was on the internet and
somehow came across a website that talked about Jesus and the Bible. I
began reading and could feel the unbearable sadness of missing something
pressing hard on me. As I continued to read I began to feel something new
rising from the hole and as I got to the bottom of the page I came across
this statement that Christ was needed for forgiveness of sin and that He was
the only way to salvation. I came to the realization at that point that I
was a sinner worthy of hell. I began praying to Jesus for the first time in
my life and confessed and cried out for Him to change me and there at my
desk at work I was sobbing like I hadn’t since I was a child. As I cried
out I began to feel warmth that I had never experienced before and all the
burden and emptiness was gone. I couldn’t explain it except that I knew at
that moment that I was changed. Shortly after Samantha and I started
attending Calvary Chapel she accepted the Lord. We were married shortly
after that and God has had His hand in all of it. When told the whole
conversion story most people say it is a miracle the way God ripped down the
doors and shined the Light on us the way He did. All I can say is it was a
miracle that He would save us and use us as He has.
I began to feel His call but
didn’t know exactly what was going to happen since I was a career Army man.
Then something strange happened, I began to feel my love and my desire to
remain in the Army fade and I was in shock that I wasn’t going to finish my
career in the Army, I was close to being half way! I tried ways to work
around it to avoid what I knew was coming and the more I tried the harder it
got. So I decided to just place my trust in His guidance and devoted myself
to study and prayer. He has faithfully provided answer after answer to all
my questions and has placed a peace in myself and Samantha that we are
following His path that He has laid out for us from the beginning. We will
continue to follow Him and His plan regardless of what may be ahead.
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