Catfish, a Restraining order and Jesus
Catfish, a Restraining order and Jesus
They say the journey of a thousand miles begins with just one step. My first step took place in a primitive Baptist church when I was around five years old.
My Grandpa (my great-grandfather) loved catfish and I loved spending time with him. One of our favorite things to do was to go fishing. And once a month on Friday evening that little church would have a fish fry followed by a bunch of old folks singing about some guy that was nailed on a tree. It did not make much sense to me, so when the singing started I would go to the graveyard to play hide-n-seek. It would take three more years for my next step of learning the name of that man nailed to a tree.
The first time I remember hearing the name of Jesus was when my neighbor came by my house one Sunday morning and asked if she could take me to church. My Grandpa said “Sure, that boy sure does need Jesus.” For the next year I went to church every Sunday morning, but I don’t remember much of anything except a trip to the movie theater to watch The Lion King. The main reason that it stuck out was because it was my first time in a theater and the youth leader got in trouble because theaters were “the house of the devil.” I am not sure why I stopped going to church but it would be years later before I would take the next step on this long road.
At the age of 11 or 12 I was practicing to become the next Chipper Jones (a professional Baseball player for the Atlanta Braves at the time) when a lady drove up and asked if I wanted to go to Sunday School. I said, “Sure,” hopped on my bike, and rode home to ask if it was okay to get in the car with this complete stranger. Within half an hour I was at the same little church I had went to years before.
Come to find out this was the new pastor’s wife and she was the Sunday School teacher. I would take many steps over the next four to five years. Many of them toward Christ but many more away from Him. It was during this time that I gave my life to Jesus, made life-long friends, started to question my new faith (mostly in the areas of evolution and the idea that a loving God would burn people forever), be accused of leading two gangs as well as a Satanic cult and even be told that I had a restraining order filed against me by a church. At 16 I walked away from Church, faith, and anyone that had anything to do with God.
Over the next few years I became increasingly disconnected with all things God. I explored many different faiths but identified the most with many of the new age belief systems. The older I got the less interested I became in matters of spirituality and the more I became interested in the pleasures of life. Three years after leaving the Christian faith I found myself in army fatigues station at Camp Casey, South Korea.
It was during my two years in Korea that I started to spiral out of control. I had discovered alcohol and the club scene. This new “hobby” of mine would cost me dearly during my first 14–16 months of my service. I spent most of my tiny paycheck on partying and hugged a toilet more times that I can count. It wasn’t until I woke up one Sunday morning and did not know where I was at, that I finally decided that something had to change.
I did not know it then, but I had a Jesus sized hole in my heart and drinking was not filling the void. Though I had problems with my Christian background I had some great times in church. So I decided that I would try going to the post Chapel that morning. After getting cleaned up. I hopped on a bus and headed out. I don’t remember a single song that was sung, a word that the preacher said, or even what the building looked like. When I looked at the five or six people in the chapel with me I knew everyone of their faces but the preacher’s. These people were all the people that were at the bar the night before. Many of them I knew were cheating on their wives or had worse drinking problems than me. Maybe church was not the right place for me after all. Another step backwards.
A few months earlier I had met this Indian girl who was a school teacher in a little Christian school. We would talk on and off but every time I asked her on a date she had something else to do. She also talked a lot about God, which was a little annoying, but she was real pretty so I dealt with it. Of all the girls I had met over the past year or so, she seemed the sanest one outside of the whole God thing. I finally opened up about my drinking problem and what had happened with the church. Her advice was simple. I shouldn’t be drinking, and I should give church and God another try. It would be hard to give up drinking, but I knew she was right. However, I was not so sure about the church thing.
Over the next couple of months, we spent a lot of time on the phone and I finally accepted her invitation to go to church. I did find it odd that she went to church on Saturday but decided it was worth a try. I asked a friend of mine to make the four-hour trip with me the following week. We got up at 5am and got to the church just before they started their Bible class.
It was a study on Daniel Chapter 2 and I thought it was really cool. The teacher let me ask questions and did not tell me to just accept it on faith as I had heard in the past. I did not understand a word of the church service as it was all in Korean, but I did understand the food served afterward. We then went to different Bible classes all afternoon. It was a bit too much Bible for me, but I did enjoy hanging out with Ami.
Over the next two months I spent a lot of time with her both in church and outside of church. She answered most of my questions and the ones she did not know she was open about not knowing but gave me resources that would help me figure them out. There was a key difference between her and the Christians I had met in the past. She lived like she believed. Her actions matched her words. She was not perfect but she was real. It set my heart on fire.
It would take the process of two years, hundreds of hours of Bible study, a couple of false starts, a whole lot of falling back into my old ways and a ton of prayer but on April 1, 2006 I was baptized in Augusta 1st Seventh-day Adventist Church. Then on January 16, 2007 Ami and I got married. Today I am a pastor, we have two beautiful daughters and continue to share the love of Jesus.
So why did I become a Seventh-day Adventist Christian? The answer is twofold. First and foremost, I saw someone living what they believed. If it was not for that I would not have studied a thing. I walked out of a church, months before because actions and words did not match. Secondly the message was beautiful. It was not one of an angry God that was looking to BBQ me if I made a mistake. The Adventist understanding of the biblical narrative is one that simply made sense to me. I studied a lot of different faith backgrounds both Christian and non-Christian and most did not make logical sense. The Adventist understanding of the Bible did and still does.
My prayer is that through this blog you will learn who Jesus is and how to love Him more every day. If this Christian thing is new to you that is okay. We don’t have it all figured out yet. If you left the church but feel that something missing, give it another try. If you are unsure about this whole Adventist thing let us share with you the beauty we see. If you disagree with us that is okay to. Even my wife does that from time to time. Bottom line is that Jesus loves you and wants to spend time with you. Take time today to take a step on the road with Him.
