Walk Across the Room Series

I accepted Christ at the Methodist Church Camp at North Webster between my freshman and sophomore years in high school. I was active in my youth group, sang in the choir, etc. Then I got married. My husband was raised Lutheran, so we decided to take instructions at both denominations and then decide which one we’d go to. When that didn’t work out, at the suggestion of some friends who had experienced the same circumstances, we joined the Presbyterian Church where they were involved in starting a new church plant. Since it was a new venture with a small congregation, everyone had a part in getting it started. We were very involved there.

In the meantime, my husband was going to college part-time, working full time. I was working full time and we were raising two children. Somehow in the business of life, we grew apart. I thought he didn’t love me, plus I was working at a Christian-founded insurance company and the examples of marriages I was seeing were the kind I wanted, not what we had. During this very difficult time we were directed to a Christian marriage counselor who helped us realize that we came from two different backgrounds and had been trying to do too much at our church and not getting any spiritual food for ourselves. We started attending another church where we really started to grow in our faith and understand that you don’t earn your salvation by works.

When I think back, 30 years ago, there were a lot of people involved in walking across the room for us – the person who directed us to the counselor, the counselor, all those who welcomed us to the new church and became our friends, the pastors, my bosses at the insurance company, and more. Because of them we have a very strong marriage and a strong faith in God. How can we not walk across the room for someone else?