At the end of my last post, I talked about how no matter what my upbringing was, I still needed Jesus just like everyone else. I still needed grace and I was still a very needy person, even if I grew up in a happy, healthy, christian environment. Bill's story is much different.
My son's often asked me, why does dad have two dads? It is difficult to tell a 6 and 4 year old that Bill's mother and father were divorced when he was very young. Cathy (Bill's mom) was a very devout Irish Catholic and so she went to the priest about her marriage and all that had happened. The priest informed her that Bill would be considered illegitimate because of the divorce even though there was infidelity involved. She was furious and at that point decided to leave the church. Now understand for those of the Catholic faith, leaving the church is considered leaving God. So Cathy was a single mom whose faith had been severely shaken. It was in the midst of all of this that Cathy became friends with Wayne Cleveland and the eventually began dating, they also became involved in a Bible Study of a man who was planting a church in their town. Through all of this both of them became saved. As time went on the Church grew and Cathy and Wayne were married. Bill was still a very little boy during this time.
Now in a sense, Bill grew up in the church as well. His parents were pillars in their church, they were there every time the doors were open, at prayer meetings, service, Sunday school, and Bill was with them. However, Bill was wounded. The divorce had caused much pain in him as a young boy. He didn't understand why his parents did not love each other anymore and he buried his pain so that he would be tough. So that no one would be able to hurt him like that again. Through his time growing up he did experience God in different ways, however he held on to his anger and his hurt. Into his teens he became very introverted and hopeless. The pain of his life was caving in on him, and he became suicidal.
I love his conversion experience and the way he describes it. He was in church one night and as always he was sitting in the closest seat to the door. He describes the experience so vividly. He heard the Lord speak to him and basically say tonight is your night you either choose me or go your own way which is the way of weeping and gnashing of teeth. That night God gave Bill an ultimatum and that night He took step towards God, he walked up the center isle of his little country church and God literally knocked him out. When he got up, he wasn't the same person. The pain of his circumstances, the hate he had, the sin he had lived was washed away.
I love Bill's testimony, not because of the pain he faced or the fact that he has "a cool testimony" because it honestly isn't cool. I love it because I see how God had a plan all along. From the moment that Cathy was told by the priest that her son would be a bastard, God had a plan. All of these difficult painful circumstances pointed Cathy toward God. It brought her to a place of salvation. She had to learn to depend on God and pray. She brought Bill to church and planted seeds of grace in his life. So he had a Godly heritage, different perhaps then mine, but amazing. The reality is that God wants all of us, through our circumstances and our lives and our families God has a plan. So as you look at your lives, your family heritage, recognize that God's hand is in all of it. You will see that no matter how difficult our lives are or how much pain we face, God is there.
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