“I Hated God for Taking My Father!”
I am constantly hearing amazing stories of people finding their way back to God. Here is Derek’s remarkable journey in his words…
“My faith in God was absolutely destroyed at 10 years of age when my father died unexpectedly in an accident. I remember being in the room holding his fingers when I heard the noise of the monitor go to a flat tone and we were rushed out of the room. I hated God for that! I hated God for taking away my father and I struggled for a long time growing up without a dad.
Even after losing my father and walking away from God I would still pray at night. I mainly prayed for my Mom and sister asking God for help when times got bad. I refused to ever thank God. Prayer was just a way to avoid pain for myself and others.
It was a long journey, but I finally “forgave” God when I was 27. I forgave God, but our relationship was not reconciled.
It was six years ago that I began an amazing journey with my wife and son of finding our way back to God. Along the way, the people in my small group have shaped my life in so many positive ways. I was also given with the opportunity to go on a trip to Haiti to work with impoverished children. As a result of that trip we have begun sponsoring two children from Haiti and are grateful for the opportunity to remove some pain from those children’s lives.
I recently choose to be baptized with my wife and son and marked my journey back to God. The journey has been an am amazing full circle experience. The beauty is that my son is now 10 years old and is accepting God as his Holy Father – the exact same age when I walked away, he is saying yes to Jesus!
I know there will still be struggles ahead. But this is for certain: I know without a shadow of a doubt that God will be next to me every moment of each good day and bad day – just like he has been every day since my Father died.”
We are a family of prodigals, each finding our way back to God. And we can learn a lot from one another. Share your story using the link at the bottom of the page for me to share with others in a future post.
If you are wanting to find your way back to God or you want to help a friend find their way back – join us on this journey and get your copy of Find Your Way Back To God.