Testimonies

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My name is Matt Thompson, and I a new believer. The day of my last non-believing day was April 14th, 2006. I thought it would be appropriate to introduce myself in this fashion because it is similar to a way I introduce myself every Monday night at 7:00 pm. at St. Mark’s Lutheran Church on 52nd street here in Kentwood. Both introductions are very similar where they proclaim the end of a bad chapter/theme of my life and the start of a new clean and exciting chapter. Tonight, I’m going to end a whole book and put it on a shelf to collect dust, and start a brand new book. Almost all of the supporting characters and settings from the old book will be included in this new one, but the main character and theme have been replaced. In the old book, the main character was … well, me of course. Now, I know it’s not about me! The main character in this new book of my life is Jesus Christ. This is how the new book starts.

On April 15th, a mighty wave that started a long time ago finally crested and crashed upon the beach of my soul. That wave was the Holy Spirit! My wife Joell and I accompanied my two daughters Emma and Mattie to an Easter egg hunt here at Kentwood Community Church. We came to know of this event through our neighbor friend Rich and Cheryl Dryer. At this point, I have to interject that I know this is a great Walk, Don’t Wave story and I so desperately wanted to share each time the Pastoral staff invited, but I needed to save it for today. Sorry Guys. Cheryl brought over a postcard style invitation to give to Joell and wondered if we would be interested in going. I remember thinking to myself of what a very sharp looking marketing piece and wondered who did their work. The postcard was very “inviting” in of itself. When Joell asked what I thought about attending, I said “sure.” “What could possible come from an Easter egg hunt”?

That morning was absolutely beautiful. Just about as perfect as a spring day could be. As I pulled into the parking lot, I was taken back a little by the size of the property. The parking lot was quite full and I must admit I was a little nervous for some reason. That nervousness was quickly put to rest by the number of smiles, friendly and warm greetings and welcoming waves from complete strangers I received as we walked through the lot. An excitement started to build within me. The organization of the whole event was quite impressive. As I watched the kids race frantically around the zoned off areas for treats, the smiles and giggles increased the tingle that was building inside me.

Cheryl invited us into the Celebration Center for a short children’s program that was being put together by JAM. My two girls have attended JAM with the Dryers on previous visits and had great things to say about the program. So, I immediately accepted her invitation to see what was going on inside. To be very honest, I was a little freaked out at first by all of the excitement going on inside a church. It wasn’t anything I have ever witnessed. The music was strange; the theater group was a new thing I have never experienced in church not to mention the Frisbees flying around. But I will never forget the look of something I had never seen on my two daughter’s faces. It is hard to full describe other than it was a mix of joy, wonder, hope and love much like their faces on Christmas morning except times ten. I remember quickly having to wipe a tear that came without warning.

After the program was over, Cheryl continued her “holy hospitality” and invited us to join them for service that night at 6:00 pm. My daughter had softball practice till 6:30, but instead of, “Thanks, but we can’t make it” came “Sure, we would love to come, I could use some enlightenment” out of my mouth. Cheryl said “Great, afterwards we can have a cookout at our house. We can make an evening out of it.” I asked Emma if she would mind leaving practice early to go to church. She said it would be no problem. So, that night, we went to church for the first time as a family.

We met the Dryer at church and headed for the balcony. As we got settled in, I noticed the count down clock on the screens. At first, I thought it was a running clock that was to signify the resurrection for Easter. Just like the ones that were everywhere back in 1999 for the coming of the new millennium. Then I noticed that it was counting way to fast for Sunday and that it was going to expire in less than two minutes. What was going to happen in two minutes? Then I realized it was a countdown to the start of the service. Today, as I reflect back on it, it was a count down to my salvation.

I then noticed that there was a grey rock formation on the back of the platform. It took me a few seconds to figure that this was a physical representation of the tomb. As I look at it, and thought about that prop and what it represented, I literally felt a crack inside my chest. Then this music started playing and people started singing louder and louder, some with raised hands while others were clapping. I was starting to get that nervous feeling again when all of a sudden this bald guy (sorry Pastor Brant) that was signing stops, starts running around and talking about this astrological formation. Then this picture pops on the screen and it’s a beautiful picture of a galaxy, then they zoom in on the nebulous and there is this cross formation right in the middle of it. Pastor Brant shouts something to the tune of “the science world calls this the x factor. I don’t know about you, but it looks like a cross to me!” There goes another crack in my chest. I am desperately trying to control my emotions at this point.

Shortly after that, Pastor Wayne comes on the platform and welcomes everyone. He started to talk about how people might have found their way to this evenings service and then I heard “Maybe your here for the first time from being away for awhile because you feel like you have fallen out of the grace of God.” There was no crack this time, but rather an explosion. It was if Pastor Wayne swung a gigantic sledgehammer upon the stone that had encased my heart over the past twenty years. There was no way to hold back the tears at this point. My heart was instantly overwhelmed and touched in a way that I can only explain in words by a warm embrace. It was as if He (capital H) was talking directly to me.

Pastor Wayne started to invite people to come and symbolically walk through the tomb to meet Christ. I couldn’t move. I wanted to deep down inside, but I was so ashamed of my selfishness, not being able to contain my emotions and pure fear that I just sat there. Then there was a tug on my sleeve. When I looked down, my youngest daughter looked right through me to my very soul and said “Come on Daddy. Let’s go down and walk through the stones” Shamefully I said, “Not tonight honey, Maybe we can do it next year.” Then she just smiled at me, wiped the tears off my cheek and held my hand. I told God right then and there that I’m your completely and forever. I surrender everything to you. A sense of peace came over me instantly and everything that I knew and believed changed “snap” like that.

My life had completely flipped upside down. Or better yet, upside right. Tonight is exactly five months since I completely surrendered and accepted Jesus Christ as my Lord and Savior.
These past five months have been surreal and busy to say the least. I immediately had a need to learn more about what I just experienced. I was scared, but I knew for the first time that I was not alone.

Shortly after that night, I entered a Christian bookstore for the first time in my life. I bought two books that day. The first was the Bible in the New Living Translation that was recommended to me by a friend and coworker Russell Metcalf. The second book was titled Gambling: Don’t Bet on It by Dr. Rex Roger, president of Cornerstone University here in Grand Rapids. I bought this particular book because it was the only one I could find that specifically address my affliction and had a Christian viewpoint on that activity. I was a little disappointed because I thought there would be more than one book on this subject in a Christian bookstore. No matter, it was just what I needed. As I started reading from both books, a whole bunch of questions started to come. As God would have it, KCC started a new Alpha program which I joined. It’s so completely awesome how God does that. I met some wonderful and more importantly truly caring and godly people in Alpha. They did an excellent job addressing my questions and provided some great guidance for me as a new believer. At the same time, the Pastoral staff was helping me build a better home with their Extreme Home Makeover: Family Edition series. Another book was given to me titled A Guidebook for New Believers: Encouraging Words for the First 100 Days by Bette Norberg. Next came the new series at KCC titled Defeated or Delivered: A Look at the Life of Moses. This is when things really started to get crazy. In the middle of this series, The Purpose Driven Life was put into my hands. How this book came to me is an awesome and special story within itself. Since I have only so much time, I will have to share this story at another time. Then the Graphics Art team asks for volunteers and I say “why not”? Next, I start taking the Experiencing God class. KCC starts a new series called Holly Hospitality and a new book enters my life titled The Power of a Praying Husband.

I list these things out not to show how much I have accomplished or what a good guy I am trying to be, but rather to show how God is working in my life. I’ve read more and learned more in the past five months than I have in the past five years. These are blessings that God is continually putting in my life so that the new skin that I’m in fits a little better. I was going to say more comfortable, but that is the wrong word. In fact, I have never been more uncomfortable in my entire life and as strange as it sounds, that is a good thing.

As each new day passes and a new page is entered in my new book, I realize just how much God was in the old book. When I turned my back on God in my late teens, I thought He was gone for good. I know now that He never left, I just couldn’t hear him. The book of John chapter 8 verse 47 states “He who belongs to God hears what God says. The reason you do not hear is that you do not belong to God.” That verse completely sums up the last twenty years of my life. As I made poor choices in life, it was God who continue to clean up the mess. As I lied and broke relationships, it was God who kept putting the pieces back together again. Bad things happened during my absence which included an addition to gambling, but so did some wonderful blessings. God gave me a wonderful, very caring, strong willed wife who truly knows the meaning of forgiveness, two beautiful daughter’s that I cherish and continue to show me God’s glory, a good job, a nice home and many more things that a lot of people go without. My selfish living is over. God is my center and I pray that He continues to use me to serve to fulfill His purpose.

I think it is only fitting to not only thank God for his sacrifice of His only son for this new gift of salvation but as well as everyone and everything He used for His purpose to get me to turn back around to face Him so that I could hear Him. This is in no particular order; Dr. Rex Rogers, Pastor Rick Warren, Bette Nordberg, Henry T Blackaby, Claude King and Stormie Omartain for their written word; Kentwood Community Church which incorporates everyone associated in The Alpha Program, everyone in the Experiencing God class, the Pastoral Staff, everyone in the Worship Arts Ministry, and the whole congregation which is my new church family; Russell Metcalf for following God’s command, Dave Kell for handing me The Purpose Drive Life, Rich, Cheryl, Sidney, Cassey and Samantha Dryer for being all that you are; My Dad who I greatly miss, My Mom for being the best steward that I know; All the rest of my family for just being there; And last but not least, My lovely wife Joell and my two daughters Emma and Mattie. You three make it easier to see God’s purpose. May God continue to bless every single one of you and continue to work through you! I love you all.

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