Crossfire
06-27-2011, 11:41 PM
I was raised a Christian but after jr high I stopped coming to church and by high school was pretty much a stoner... Flashforward age 35, I'm done. After a failed stint inpatient rehab 6 years earlier, I've had enough. I started going to AA meetings and getting sober before my daughter was born. Made it by a few months. Forward again, recognizing a higher power has me thinking my 4 yr old daughter should be baptized, so I go back to my old church and meet with the Pastor who confirmed me years before. We work out the details and as I'm getting up to leave he says; "It'd be nice to see you around here again." I'm taken back for a second, then respond with; "Sure." I then register her for Sunday school and go with her the first few times because she's a bit timid, and I find out I know the guy who teachers preschool and he needs a sub sometimes because he has to work. My first position at church, substitute preschool teacher.:) At her baptism when we get to the part where we answer for the child, she answers for herself because she was listening... I'm choked up and realize that my kid is a child of God already and she's teaching me... First time I read a lesson in church, I never looked ahead of time, I start reading and its the prodigal son story... I choke up realizing I'm reading my own story but I get thru it with my heart thumping in my chest, or was it God tapping me on the shoulder? Forward again, I've sat on church council for years... I'm an assistant minister and the Youth Director, 16 yrs sober with a 16 yr old daughter who acolytes and loves God. I sing lead and play rhythm guitar in our Praise Band, Crossfire. I still go to AA meetings to be there for the next guy like they were for me. I think that God kept me alive thru my drinkin' and druggin' years so that I could use them as a reference guiding the youth here at our church.
Everyday I'm blessed by what God has done for me. Carl.
Everyday I'm blessed by what God has done for me. Carl.