HOPE & LIGHT

Who am I? When asked to introduce myself, I usually say that I’m the wife of a Christian film and video producer and the mother of two adult children. Depending on the setting, I might add that I’m the mother of a special needs adult son. Or that I’m a woman who suffers with a long list of chronic illnesses. These are facts about my life, but are they really who I am? No. If I have repeatedly been unsuccessful in reaching a goal, I might even identify myself as a failure. But all of these are simply what the flesh, the world, and the devil says about me. They are not who I really am, because they leave our the most important thing about me. First and foremost, I am a Christian, a daughter of the living God!

Ralph Waldo Emerson said: “Our chief want is someone who will inspire us to be what we know we could be.” For me, that “someone” is Jesus Christ. In 1 John 2:6, the apostle John said we are “to walk in the same manner as He walked.” So being like Christ is the key to being the person I really desire to be.

This idea was a major key to accepting Christ as my personal Lord and Savior. I grew up in church, but I was twenty-four years old before I made this decision. My pastor at the time decided to do a sermon based on the book In His Steps. This novel by Charles M. Sheldon asks the question, “What Would Jesus Do?” in various situations of life.

Because of the challenge of my pastor, I asked “What would Jesus do?” and as a result changed my plans for the next evening. Instead to going to see a local play as I had planned, I decided to accept my pastor’s invitation and go with his family and a few others to a church service. The speaker that night was Dale Chapman, who had recently started a Bible college in Oklahoma City. As a result of that meeting, my life was changed for ever! First, I accepted Jesus Christ as my Lord and Savior. And I made a commitment to do whatever God said and to go wherever He led me. That resulted in me resigning from my job as a kindergarten teacher, enrolling in the Bible college Dale Chapman had spoken about, and meeting my future husband. I became a child of God, a daughter of the Kings of Kings and Lord or Lords. And I dedicated my life to serving Him. Since that pivotal day, the question “Who am I?” really has only one answer: I am a Christian.