God's Got This!

All of my life, I have had a paralyzing fear of public speaking. In fact, I have avoided things that I desperately wanted to do, when I discovered that public speaking would be involved. So, it is not surprising that up until about 6 months ago, I would have sworn that I would NEVER give my testimony. I specifically asked people on multiple occasions, to stop asking me to do so, because it was never going to happen. But something happened last August that began changing my heart.

I had the privilege of attending the annual Celebrate Recovery Summit in California. One of the very first speakers stood up, and started describing his journey into becoming an inspirational speaker. Now, let me just say, that I have ALWAYS believed that God speaks to me through others. So, this gentleman starts talking about how he went into the radio-industry, because he never had to talk in front of a visible audience. He too was deathly afraid of public speaking. And then he said something I will never forget. He said, "God uses people too" and began describing that God will place people and situations in your life, in order for you to receive a specific message. God put someone special in his life, that started his journey from overcoming his intense fear, to traveling around the country and using his story to inspire others. THAT day, God placed THAT man in my life, to tell me that it was time to share my story. And for the first time, I literally felt God breathing into me, the words that I needed to say.

That very day, I made the commitment to share my testimony, and I trusted God to deliver the message that He wanted, and not that I wanted. This isn't to say that I was suddenly relieved of fear, because I definitely wasn't. But God always placed the perfect people in my life to encourage me at just the right time, and to help relieve any insecurity or fear that I was feeling. One of my step-study sisters sent me a simple text almost everyday that said "God's Got This." This reminded me on a daily basis, to let go of my control and fear. I was also reminded on several occasions, that this was not MY story to tell, it was GOD'S. I was merely a vessel. Lastly, I was assured that any insecurity or fear that I was feeling, was not from God. Satan did not want me to share this story, and he was prepared to throw anything in my path, that would've kept me from doing so.

Two weeks ago, I finally did it!! I stood in front of a large group of people, and shared my story. My ugly, dirty, sad, redemptive, joyful, and beautiful story. And something incredible happened! People still loved me! I could not believe the out-pouring of love that I felt. Somehow, I pictured that I would feel ashamed after sharing the darkness of my past. To be honest, I have never felt as secure in who I am, as I felt that night. Since then, I have received countless phone-calls, text-messages, and emails, thanking me for sharing my story. I have been blessed by hearing how my testimony has touched other people's lives. God has truly taken my mess, and made it His message! And I hate that I kept that message to myself for so long!

If you've never given your testimony, PLEASE consider doing so! No matter what your hurt, habit, or hang-up, there will always be someone that God puts in your path who NEEDS to hear your story! And stop worrying...God's Got This!!

Grateful Believer,
Amy

CR Summit = AMAZING!

Our CR ministry is blessed to be able to take a group to CR Summit each year.  This year was my first year to get to go and if I had to sum it up in one word it would be AMAZING!  The 16 of us that attended from MRCC had the pleasure to  worship together with 3600 other CR family members.  There was no discussions of denominations; it was just a body of believers who were praising our Higher Power, Jesus Christ!

Summit is a yearly event held at Saddleback Church in California.  Rick Warren (author of Purpose Driven Life, and a number of other books) is the head Pastor at Saddleback, so they obviously have a large congregation. Very large.  We had the pleasure of getting to hear Rick Warren speak and God provided him some amazing words to share with us.  I will be sharing more of Rick Warren’s quotes on our Facebook page in the coming weeks, but one that stood out was “Whatever gets your attention - gets you!”  Where is my attention focused?  To be honest sometimes MY attention is helping serve on the TEAM, or doing tasks on a Friday night that “need to get done” but maybe sometimes my attention needs to be focused on my own recovery instead!   That was a great point and really made me do some thinking about me and my recovery journey!

If you haven’t been to Summit, the entire group worships together and then we break up and attend training sessions on different areas of the CR program. 

This year one of the highlights was to getting to see the world premier of the movie Home Run.    Now, I’ll be honest and say most “church movies” I’ve seen are cheesy! Like worse that a Lifetime Original movie!!  But this movie, Home Run, was amazing!  It’s going to be a powerful tool to explain how God uses CR to change lives, provide healing, and restore relationships.  There will be more to come about how our CR program at MRCC is going to promote this movie and how can you be a part of that!  (You might get sick of hearing me talk about it.)

I hope you’ll be at CR this Friday night.  It will be a great night of praise & worship, and several of us will be sharing what we learned at CR Summit.  See you then!

Grateful Believer,

Karyn