Blog 10/6/08

Renea!

For those of us who’ve made a decision to follow Christ each day and submit to His will for our lives and not our own, we often have someone in our past who showed us the path; someone who guided us or showed us something about themselves and their own relationship with God that changed us.  For many, that person is an elder, a family member, or a mentor.  For me, that person was a peer and a friend.  Her name is Renea and she showed me what an authentic Christian looked like at 11yrs old!  She wasn’t afraid of death or of sharing her faith with others.  She was the one who asked me in the middle of a discipleship weekend that my church was having if I’d ever accepted Christ.  While I’d always prayed and talked openly with God and knew about him, felt his presence even, I’d never made a formal decision, giving my life to Him completely.  She told me that all of these things were great, but that my relationship depended on my having accepted His gift to me and then making my desires and will subordinate to His will for my life.  Of course, she used different language and spoke like any other 11 year old, but she was wise and spoke with such authority that I knew she was right!  She wasn’t like many of the other girls I knew who talked others into following after worldly things and selfish desires.  Renea spoke with passion about the Jesus she knew and talked about an intimate relationship with Him! I prayed with her the sinners prayer and afterward got baptized in my home church on the MS gulf coast.  Later, we would go on many church functions together and we’d talk about how Jesus affected us.  She was strong in her faith and never seemed to waiver while I, on the other hand, was a little too focused on what I wanted!  I often struggled with giving myself fully to God.  She watched me get a little crazy just being myself at a retreat (sugar high, no doubt!) and then pull away slowly throughout high school.  We were always nice to each other, but eventually we ran in similar, but different circles…she was busy with the band, eventually becoming drum major, while I moved up in the choir and madrigals and quickly got more and more solo opportunities.  But I believe that the gap was wider than I wanted to admit because I’d fallen further away than I really wanted to go and college made it worse.  Eventually, though, God brought me back to Himself and to Renea.  I found out several years ago that she and her high school sweetheart had married and moved to the same town as me, and we got together every now and then for  a quick visit.  I’ve since lost touch with her after we’ve each had children.  Yesterday in church on my first weekend off from performing Hold On in a few weeks, my pastor preached about Nicodemus coming to Jesus and his story of salvation in John chapter 3.  This is, of course, where the well-known scripture John 3:16 is from, but Dino was talking about what it means to be saved and how he had an authentic Christian in his life that made him think about where he was and wanted to go at 16 years old.  I immediately thought of Renea and had the desire to blog and publicly thank her for being that for me!  I know that Jesus saved me and has called me to this ministry, but He used Renea to first call my attention to Him!  Thank you, Renea for being obedient to His call on your life and for loving me in my crazy moments when were kids (even on a sugar high).  Thank you for showing a Nicodemus who Jesus really is! I’m sorry we’ve lost touch and if you want to catch up, please email me!  I pray that God will bless you, your marriage, your children, and your ministry a hundred fold for all you’ve done for those like me!  As for any of you, if you already know and serve Jesus Christ, take a moment to thank that person, if you’re able, who helped show you the way and bless them in their lives today.  If you don’t yet know what it means to be one of the family of Christ, then I urge you to seek Him out today!  If you have questions or need prayer or just want to talk about your life, I want to hear from you!  Email me at angie@angieewing.com and let me know how you are!  Many blessings to all of you this week~ang