Nothing thrills my heart more than to hear how someone comes to know Jesus as Savior. Even more exciting than that is to watch someone come to Christ. To sense the presence of the Holy Spirit moving, softening, and awakening one’s soul is indescribable. I’ll never forget when Tanya came to church for the first time. I was in Junior church teaching where her daughter would be in class. Tanya stayed the first time making sure her little girl was settled and comfortable. It wasn’t the little girl who was uncomfortable though, it was her Mom. Clearly she was not so sure about the whole church thing. She’d been before. Her husband is a Christian but Tanya would later share with me over dinner that she felt like an impostor at church. A fake because she didn’t really believe it all. She’d never confessed that before. We talked about a lot of different things that night over dinner. At one point I was encouraging her to read the Bible to get to know Jesus. I said something like, “Not only do you get to know Jesus but the Bible has some awesome wild stories in it.” I loved her candid response. She said, “Yeah, I know, and about that……Moses and a burning, talking bush? Really. Come on now. That’s hard to believe.” I laughed out loud and said, “Tanya, God is okay with your questions. He loves you in the midst of your doubt. And if you ask Him to reveal himself to you in a way that you understand and believe, He will do it.”
An hour after dinner we went to hear Candace Cameron Bure speak at a women’s event. It was incredibly wild to hear her speak and to address the very things that Tanya had spoken about at dinner. They had similar stories in some ways. It was as if Candace had been at dinner with us that night and just continued the conversation. At the end of the night they gave an opportunity for women to come down and pray at the altar. It was during that time Tanya gave her life to Jesus. The things she was clinging to she let go of and told Jesus she trusted him with her life and for the forgiveness of her sins. It was the most beautiful thing ever. We cried, hugged, prayed and on the way out she said, “Man, I feel like I need a cigarette!” I seriously considered smoking for the first time myself I was just so excited.
Fast forward six months and the landscape of Tanya’s life is still changing. She has disciplined herself in the reading of scripture, discipleship, connecting with our church family and growing in her relationship with Christ. To watch her respond to Christ has been one of the greatest joys of my life. She has pushed through the uncomfortable and the completely unknown out of a heart for Jesus. She has helped remind me that going from knowing nothing about Jesus and church culture to following him is awesome but hard at times. Humbling even. It’s not a big deal for someone who has grown up in church to flip back and forth in the Bible. But to a newbie in Christ tabs are a great way to help find books. But this can feel intimidating. Not knowing terminology that we use a lot at church can be confusing at times. I was clued in to this during one of our discipleship times. Tanya said, “You keep saying ‘the fall’. What is ‘the fall’?” I knew what it was but it stopped me in my tracks because I had never really broken that down and thought about the chosen words to describe the change in all humanity. It’s just what you call it to describe that very big huge thing that happened in the garden. Tanya has stretched me and forced me to take off the layers of “just because” to really having to think about why we do what we do as followers of Christ. She doesn’t care that I’m a pastor’s wife or that you might be a deacon. She isn’t impressed with labels or positions. She doesn’t flatter or try to impress. She is simply on the road to following Jesus.
In response to baptism early on she wasn’t ready and didn’t want to get baptized because she didn’t want to do it for the wrong reasons. After studying and reading what scripture had to say about it she is responding to Christ in obedience through baptism this Sunday morning. Ahhhh!!!!!!! I’m so excited.
Tanya, I am so happy for you, proud of you and encouraged by you. There is no greater joy than to watch your life change because of Jesus Christ alive and at work inside of you. I am praying for you and celebrating with you this Sunday what God has done and is doing. We serve an amazing God who loves us dearly. Let’s keep following Him and learning and growing together.
This is such a beautiful story! Thank you for sharing with us. It’s encouraging to reach out more.