March 2009 Testimony

Moving forward...all I Can testimonies will be posted via my blog....see below for last month's post.

March 2009
I knew about Jesus growing up. We went to church on Christmas and Easter, and once in a while I would go to VBS with a friend or sing Jesus Loves Me because that was the tune on my mind. I liked Jesus, actually. I thought He was nice and I loved the stories I heard about from the Bible—especially the ones about how He performed miracles. My favorite was story about how he healed a blind man because I am visually impaired, too. I wondered if someday God would allow me to be healed like that so I could see like all the other kids I knew. Jesus did that for the blind man, why not for me, right? I figured He could heal me if He felt like it, so every once in a while when I thought about it I would ask God to heal my eyes. Once I even wrote Him a letter and asked for Him to restore my eyesight. I left it on my desk in my room so God would see it. The next day it was gone so I figured God saw it and took it with Him to Heaven. (Mom saved it all those years and gave it back to me in a memory box the day I graduated from college.)

I found myself searching for “something” as I grew into adolescence. My family was enduring some significant difficulties during those years. It was a time of tumultuous divorce, poverty, family tragedy, and other life circumstances that would test the soul of even the most strengthened among us. It didn’t seem right that the trauma of events in such a young life were doing so much damage with no hope of repair. What else was there? How in the world would someone survive what our family endured? There HAD to be something out there to give us hope and peace and love amidst that crushing despair… wasn’t there?

I was introduced to the concept of having Christ in my life as my savior at Campus Life and Fellowship of Christian Athletes meetings in high school. I was invited to attend because the social side of it was fun, but there was something different about those meetings. It was clear right away. When the gospel was presented I heard it clearly for the first time and that’s when I knew who I belonged to all along. I didn’t belong to divorce or poverty. I didn’t need to be defined by deceit or anger or distrust. God took all of those labels off when I chose to give my heart and life to Him completely. I trusted Him as my one and only provider and my one and only guide. It doesn’t mean that the things of past and present and future will not be painful sometimes. But it does mean I now have a personal relationship with God, who loves me and forgives my transgressions so that I can rest in his arms in times of sadness or fear and know that His plans for me are perfect and that His grace is sufficient always.

Knowing that within my heart brings it all full circle, really. Although my childhood request for God’s healing of my visual impairment was always real, and I genuinely believed that God could perform a miracle if His will called for it, at that time in my life I didn’t know God as my Savior. As a young child, I wanted what “I wanted” from God. I wanted MY way. But I didn’t even know what a great and perfect gift He had in store for me—one far greater than eyesight. God gave His only son, Jesus, as the ultimate sacrifice for our sins, so that he could die on a cross and rise up again and we can know Him in our hearts and have eternal life with HIM! That gift… the one better than eyesight… is the true vision of Christ. That His children would know Him and love Him and build the Kingdom of God’s children who will spend eternity with Him in heaven when their time on earth is done. Because I have that gift now, the true vision of God, being blind is really just no big deal anymore. Inconvenient? Yes. Frustrating? Of course, it can be. But is it REALLY what defines me? Not anymore. I share God’s vision now, which brings immeasurable, overflowing joy.

Funny how God’s plans put it all into perspective, isn’t it?

Andrea Kulberg is co-owner of Future Cheer, a UK based company that is the leading international Cheer & Dance event producer. She is also a motivational speaker and author, currently launching a new inspiring speaking series called “Rock Star U” with her identical twin sister, Aly. For more information about Future Cheer, visit www.futurecheer.net For more information about Andrea’s speaking series and Rock Star U, visit www.rockstarsrock.com.