Christopher InChristalways Duchrow has given me permission to post his testimony! I hope The Lord uses this to help someone! INTRO I grew up in a Catholic household so I always knew that God existed. I may have never really followed and believed but I did know He was up there. God tried giving me wake-up calls many times but I never really got it until the last couple of years. I will try now to tell my testimony. I am going to try to include everything but I might not remember it all. GROWING UP TO THE BEGINNING OF BEING 17 Growing up I guess I could be considered a good kid. I like to think that I did not give my parents too much trouble but thy might have a different story on that. Like I said earlier I grew up Catholic and went to CCD classes and retreats. I got confirmed and the whole bit. I remember getting good grades in school as well. My life was not always perfect and that is when I begin. When I was 17 I was in a car accident. My car got hit on the drivers side and was totaled. I ended up walking away with only a bruise on my leg even though my hat flew about 20 feet back and my glasses landed on the battery of the other car. I was wearing a seatbelt which I think saved my life. Was I lucky or was this God in action? I thought that I was lucky back then as I did not really know God. At the hospital after the accident I remember looking at my mom and telling her that I had something bad to tell her. This is when I let her know that I was smoking cigarrettes and was taking them from my parents for a while. Possibly the best time to tell her as she was more worried about if I was severely injured or not. Timing is everything. However my attitude changed after this accident and my life started going downhill which I did not see for a while. AGE 17 TO ABOUT 19 About a month after the accident I lost my job at Target because I went off on a customer who I felt had an attitude with me. Then I got a job at a dinner theater right down the road from my house and got into a crowd of people. The group I was with didnt always behave the right way. We would skip school a lot. I remember thinking I was cool skipping until my parents found out because 1 of their friends happened to see my car when they shouldnt have. I wish skipping school would have been all that I did. However it wasnt. I can not remember if I was 17 or 18, but I starting enjoying smoking a little weed and having a drink. I did not do it much but I did it enough to really mess with my head into thinking I was cool. With skipping school and my other habits my grades started to suffer. I remember wanting to drop out of school when I only had a month or 2 left. I am glad that I stayed in school and finished. I was also never really happy. I was always fighting with my parents. I remember pushing my mom once or twice. I am ashamed of these years and how I acted. I would like to say that I didnt know better but I was raised better than this. I quit smoking weed only after a few months because I did not like what it was doing to me. I quit smoking cigarrettes shortly after my 19th birthday cold turkey and have not touched them since. I started a good job when I was 19 as well. I thought life was going good for me. AGE 20 TO 28 My life was going good. I was working a good job and making better friends. But that was to change. When I turned 21 I became a drinker. I would drink here and there but in June of 1999 that all changed. I became a worse person and have many regrets. In June of 1999 my Dad had a stroke while driving my mom and I to see a movie. We were on the highway. The air was running in the car. I noticed that my Dad was not responding to anything that we were saying.Thankfully my Dad knew something was wrong and took the car back off the exit and back onto the highway. I looked at him and saw that he was sweating very badly. I either brought my Moms attention to it or she noticed it at about the same time. On that day God gave my Mom the strength to hop in my Dads lap and stop the car. This car was a Ford Escort hatchback with a manual transmission. So hopping in his lap was not the easiest thing to do. None of us had our cellphones on us because we all thought just going to a movie so why do we need our phones. Thankfully a truck with a Christian couple saw us on the side of the road and stopped to see what they could do to help. They had their cellphone and called 911 for us. I was panicking and screaming and walked into the center of the interstate and thankfully the guy brought me back to the side. During this time there was a couple of people entering the Cracker Barrel that was on the other side of the interstate. The 2 women that were in the group just happened to be nurses. They heard us yelling for help and got back in their cars and rushed over to us. They were able to get all of my Dads vitals which ended up saving the paramedics time. When we got to the hospial we found out how severe it was. If we would have waited just a few seconds more my Dad may not have made it. So the people who helped out ended up saving my Dads life. He is still alive today to talk about it. I see tht this was God at work in our lives performing miracles. Unfortunately this made me even more a a drinker. Instead of being with my mom at home I started spending all my time in the bars. I became such a regular that they would have my food ready for me when I got there and order special beer for me. I started to find God but then in 2001 my Dad had a minor stroke, fell and broke his back. This was at my graduation party. I remember getting so mad at him for what i said back then ruining my party and got really mad at God. I became even more of a drinker. This made it really hard to hold down a job. I lost a couple of jobs due to my drinking. I had a good job but it was on 3rd shift which interfered with bar time so I quit and went to another place that ended up letting me go because of my attitude. My life was really on a downhill slide again. In 2002 I got a part time job, a new car and stopped drinking. I tried to get my act together. I started attending the church I grew up in but found it to be boring. My Mom went to try a new church and I followed her. I really enjoyed the new church. I became a member and started getting more active with the sound ministry and attending the Wednesday night service as well as the Sunday service. In this time I started a great job and was happy or thought I was. Things were going good. Did they stay like this? I hate to say it but no they didnt. AGES 28 TO MID 31 During this time I went to a Promise Keepers event and starting seeing more of the importance of God. I started working with the Junior High ministry and helped lead a small group. I was really enjoying it. What happened? I ended up meeting this woman who was a pagan/wiccan and I made her my priority. I quit the youth group and started missing church. I was really falling away from God because I let myself listen to this woman and her view points more. I gave up who I was to make her happier. We got engaged way too quick and I dropped everything to spend time with her. We ended up breaking up after 10 months and I started meeting other women who were better but still not that good. I started drinking again but not as bad as I was in my early 20s and was starting to feel like I had my life together until 2009 came. AGES MID 31 TO PRESENT In August of 2009 I found out that I had to start using a CPAP machine because of having sleep apnea. The same week I found out about this I also found out that I was being laid off as the economy was on a very bad downslide. Because of these things I decided that I was going to be single the rest of my life. I remember that on August 12th I had to start watching my aunts house for the week. I went to the library and got some books out to read. I got to my aunts house and started deciding what book to read first when I heard a voice. (let me mention here that all the women that I dated I met through dating sites). This voice told me to go back onto the dating website. I did not want to but the voice said it again. I said fine. I will go back on and look at 1 profile and then be done. Well the 1 profile I looked at was great. I started talking to her. We started dating and found out that we both believed in God but turned our backs on Him. We started going to church together and really enjoying each others company. However church was not a priority for us. If we missed we missed. In 2011 we got married and just in the last few months have found a new church home that appeals to us even more. If we have to miss we listen to the podcast. We are closer to God than ever before and are loving it. I know for a fact that God lead us to each other and it was in His plans as He won us both. I have read 2 books that have really helped. They were Not A Fan and Gods At War. Both written by Kyle Idleman. Not A Fan made me see that I was only a fan of God and not a follower. That really changed my life and got me out of the secular world as far as music and has me looking at the tv and movies that I watch a little closer. Gods At War made me see all the false idols that I had in my life. They were money, success, work, women, food, music (I looked at bands such as KISS and Iron Maiden as my gods), drinking, and myself. I kept trying to find pure happiness in the wrong spots. My wife bring me happiness but no the same that God provides. Since turning myself completely over to God in August of 2012 I have been able to get a better understanding on things and give up false idols. I know that I left some details out. This also needs to be updated some. Sorry.
Posted on: Tue, 22 Jul 2014 01:21:05 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015