I never thought I would be in ministry in a million years.
In my early twenties, I was newly married, successful in the business world and full of venom and anger towards God. Consequently, I was about as far from God as you can possibly get. Why? Let me just give you the “Blogger’s Digest version”. I had some really BAD experiences with people that were God experts that left me disillusioned with the whole “God thing.”
The trajectory of my life changed when I met Tim Chambers. Tim was a Youth Pastor in Ft Worth Texas who reached out to me for some reason and loved me unconditionally. Tim was a likable guy but he had one annoying problem, he kept encouraging me to come to church! I told him, “Tim, I don’t want to have anything to do with God or the church.” And you know what he did? Shockingly, he decided to still be my friend.
I remember Tim inviting me to come to camp with the high School Students. He said, “Buddy, you will love it…its not like church…we have fun.” Since Tim was a fun guy, I figured that I would give it a try and the rest is history.
God recaptured my heart at camp. I remember Gods voice clearly speaking to me at camp. “Buddy, lose the crutch. Stop letting people mess you up about God, and let ME straighten you out about people. It’s just you and ME buddy now what are you going to do?”
I decided to surrender my life to God at camp.
Fast forward 18 years and I would have never imagined God would call me into ministry, let alone start a church six years ago in Upstate New York. .
Everything that God has done in my life over the past 18 years can be traced back to Tim. If Tim didn’t build a bridge of unconditional friendship to me, then God could have never walked across that bridge into my heart.
Where is Tim today? I’ll share that tomorrow.
THANK YOU so much for always opening up and telling us where you’ve been and have come from. It is so helpful to those of us, who still struggle with our faith, sometimes on a daily basis.
Buddy: I just finished a great book and I wanted to recommend it to you. It is called “The Shack” by Young. After chapter four I was hesitant to keep reading. But once I proceeded, I could not put the book down. It is an amazing encounter with God, Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit. I highly recommend the read -
Lisa
Rene, Glad to….keep sharing your story Rene! Gods best!
Lisa, I have heard rave reviews!!! Debbie read it and loved it….I’ll check it out!
Gotta love my friend Tim Chambers!!