Whether you grew up in the church or had a tough upbringing; most of us (who are believers) have had a point in our lives when we realized that without Jesus we would be so incredibly lost. That in our darkest of times, there was only one man who could heal the pain and lift us out of our deepest misery.
Each story, no matter how big or small, can speak volumes to those who desperately need to grab hold of Jesus. We all have a back story that others can relate to, that can show them how amazing our God is and remind them that what He did for us, He can also do for them.
When Jesse and I first started attending our church and began to realize that this was going to be our home, we knew that our past was something we were not going to keep a secret. We wanted to be honest about where we had been in our marriage and the struggles that ended up leading us to where we are today. We made a choice to go into this new church family with no secrets and with our biggest failures laid out before us. Thankfully, and much to my surprise, we were welcomed with open arms, no judgment and an attitude to help others with what we have learned through this process.
So when our church announced their new fall series a few months back called “My Back Story,” you better believe Jesse and I wanted to do it. Remember back when I first started our love redeeming series? In my first post I threw out a few statistics that make it very apparent that we were NOT the only couple at Freedom Life that had experienced or was currently experiencing infidelity.
My heart in doing this was to show the church that it’s ok to talk about infidelity; and for people going through it to feel more comfortable about going to the church for help.Too many times I have seen churches condemn people for the mistakes they’ve made, instead of holding them and showing them the love that Jesus shows all of us on a daily basis. I have also seen many churches come together and gather around the broken. Thankfully, I’m in one of those churches. This makes it that much sweeter to participate in this series.
This week our church went live with the series. They have a great group of people telling their back story along with us, and if you have a few moments it’s worth taking a look. Ours is one of the first being told… here is a look at our video ...
(I must say, I wasn’t thrilled at first. I was incredibly self-conscious about the way I spoke. Worse, I had a moment of self-pity when I was consumed with my unflattering appearance, annoyed how this fancy HD camera seriously added 20lbs to a body I THOUGHT had lost all my baby weight, and then was embarrassed by the little shoulder shrug I added near the end. What was that?!)
No matter how unimpressed I was with myself in this video, I know that when we signed up to do this… it wasn't about me. It was about what God has done with this broken, hurt, doesn't always have it all together, VERY imperfect couple. It is about what He has brought this marriage out of, and about what He is now doing with all that we have learned. It's about His promise to us and our family and proof that God never failed us. It's about Jesus making us stronger when we felt like we had nothing left to give. It's so much bigger than me and I’m SO thankful that He is walking us through our Back Story.
