Top Ten

Yes, I realize I just finished a post. But as I was straightening up and getting ready to jump in bed and snuggle up to my husband and go to sleep, I discovered I have more to say. And one of two things happen if I try to go to bed when there are things that must be said. Either I can't sleep, or I forget what it was I wanted to say the next morning.

So, here I am again. Wanting to make a top ten list of the moments of my life that have made the biggest impression on my walk with Christ. I know, you didn't ask. But I'm going to enlighten you regardless. These are in chronological order.

1. Six years old. It was a Sunday night and one of my friends had been baptized that night by my father. I wanted to know why. (Actually, I think part of it was that I wanted to know how I could get baptized because it looked like a lot of fun.) Mom and Dad explained that when someone is baptized, they are telling everyone that Jesus has taken away their sins and given them a home in Heaven. I knew I was a sinner, and I was relieved to know that there was a way to get those marks off my record. I also knew that I would like to live with Jesus in Heaven. So I prayed, right there in my top bunk, for Jesus to come into my heart. And He did. Hasn't left even for a moment since. (I was able to be baptized a few months after that, to my great delight.)

2. Nine or ten years old. Camp Manitoumi. During a chapel service I heard more than the fun camp songs and thought of more than going for the polar bear swim or spending my dollars at the canteen. Suddenly I wanted to know why I believed what I believed. I wanted to know why I could trust that the Bible was accurate. I went forward. I asked. And I don't even remember the answer that the counselor gave. I only remember asking the question, and not really feeling like it was answered.

3. Thirteen years old. The space between ten and thirteen was the most difficult time of my life. I had an awkward transition to adolescence. I was a mess, emotionally and otherwise. I very clearly remember sitting in Mrs. Foster's ninth grade English class. She was talking about Romeo and Juliet. I was thinking about what I was going to do about my horrible life. Then He spoke. I had been told all my life that God never spoke like that, but I'm sorry, He did. He said "Follow Me." I instinctively knew what He meant. "Give up all the other pursuits you're running after. Give up trying to fit in, trying to look good, trying to experience everything. Instead of following around your friends into whatever places they might lead you, be the leader. Lead others to Me." So I prayed right there in English when I should have been thinking about Romeo and Juliet's twisted love saga, and I told God He could have all of me. No matter what. I'd follow to a mud hut in Africa with bugs and snakes if that's what He asked me to do. Life instantly changed.

4. Eighteen years old. (I skipped a great deal of wonderful moments between thirteen and eighteen. High school was a great time for me.) This memory is captured in the picture above. I was in Rome, Italy, with the chorale from my college. Leading us in song was Doc, and wonderful and extremely gifted musician who taught me how to worship God in the most skilled way I could. How can say enough about what that trip to Rome meant to me? How can I put into words what it felt like to descend into the very dungeon that Paul and Peter spent their last moments within? To enter the very Coliseum where my brothers and sisters gave their lives and hear their voices, speaking so loudly in that desolate and crumbling arena? What do I say to communicate the joy it was to sing to a group of people that didn't even speak my language, and have them see Jesus in us? Come to know Him, just through the smiles on our faces and the love in our voices? There in Italy I realized how much didn't matter. And how much did. In Rome I found my life verses. I want to know Christ.

5. Nineteen years old. There was a move to Ohio that I was not very excited about. A job I hadn't ever seen myself at. Health problems that descended upon me with painful surprise. Through it all I looked up. I prayed for help. I fell a lot. And one night I'd had enough. I needed friends. I needed to grow spiritually. So I went to a singles Bible study. I walked in the door. I saw a few familiar faces from church. I saw an unfamiliar face. Someone introduced me, and I shook his hand. I probably looked like an idiot, standing there with my mouth wide open in surprise. Because God spoke. Again. Like He isn't supposed to speak. "This is the one. This is your husband."

6. Twenty-four years old. (Yes, I am serious.) I stood outside the door in the foyer. My heart thumped in anticipation. Moments dragged by like hours. Finally the music swelled. I entered the church on the arm of my father. I met Pete at the alter. I said I do, he said I do, and we were married. Just like God had promised five years earlier.

7. Twenty-six years old. I'd had a rough couple of years. The stress of being newly married coupled with the stress of dealing with infertility taught me a great deal about patience, and waiting on the Lord. Trusting Him in life's most uncertain moments. The day that I hadn't been sure would ever arrive came, just at the right time. God's time. Hannah Ruth, my baby girl, joined the world. Followed two years later by her brother Noah. Talk about defining moments. My world instantly shifted.

8. Twenty-seven years old. After I gave birth to my daughter, I felt like my brain had experienced a jump start like never before. Ideas flooded my head, and instead of fluttering right back out, they stuck. So much so that when I tried to write them down, they came rushing out of me and lined up on the computer screen more neatly than I could have possibly imagined. Then He spoke again, the third time in that way I had been taught was impossible. He only spoke one word, but I knew what He meant. "Write." So that's what I've been doing for the past three years. Writing. And writing. There's been a lot of times I've wondered why exactly He asked me to do so, because I didn't really seem to be changing the world. But I can see the difference in where I was when I began this journey, and where I am now. I've come a ways. I know I've got a ways to go. But I have learned that when God tells you to do something, there's a reason.

9. Twenty-eight years old. I was first published in October of 2005, in "Horizons" by Regular Baptist Press. Three more articles have followed in the past two years.

10. Thirty. It was this past year that I became a fan of the books of Francine Rivers. In fact, she's my number one example to follow for my own fiction. But only the power of God could help an everyday woman write a series like the "Mark of the Lion" books that she authored. Never before had I seen so clearly what it means to be a believer. What it means to be part of the body of Christ. How suprisingly fulfilling and joyful it can be to emerge from the dungeon to an arena filled with bloodied sand and see a mistreated and starved lion eyeing you. Coming toward you. Attacking you. For the sake of Christ. (Read it. You'll see.)

My list so far. It's satisfying to write it down. If you haven't, why not make your own list and see what God's been doing for you these years you've been alive?

I can't wait to see what the next ten will be. Hopefully one of them will be my feet stepping off a plane onto the land of Israel. But even if it isn't, I know I won't be disappointed with the path He takes me down. Why would I? I never have before.