Life's Journey | Previous Challenge Entry

how it works

TITLE: Life's Journey | Previous Challenge Entry
By Elizabeth Budd
11/22/07
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My husband and I were driving to Virginia’s eastern shore for the weekend – he was driving, and I was navigating. Big mistake! At one point, I was actually holding the map upside down, and we drove 20 miles farther east than we were supposed to! We finally had to stop and ask directions. Anyone taking a trip knows the importance of proper directions, whether that means reading a map, recognizing landmarks, or asking a real person. On our trip through life, we also need proper directions. As I’ve traveled along my road, I’ve been directed along my way by preachers who explained the “map” to me and pointed me in the right direction.

One preacher who showed me the right way was R.A. Torrey. I never met him or heard him preach as he was dead before I was born, but he wrote a book named How to Work for Christ that I read my freshman year of college. I had been raised in a Christian home, and so I thought I was saved. I began searching that year, and came to the conclusion that I wasn’t, but I didn’t know what to do about it. I prayed the so-called “sinner’s prayer” many times, but had no confidence that I was saved. One night, in January of 1975, I was reading his book for a class, and came to page 33. He explained salvation in the clearest terms. I trusted Christ that night, and the entire course of my life was changed.

Another preacher who pointed me in the right direction was Chuck Swindoll, whom I also have never met. His book, Grace Awakening, brought me back onto the right road after being lost on the dirty streets of legalism for several years. I didn’t wear slacks, I didn’t go to movies or plays, I didn’t listen to “worldly” music, I didn’t go “mixed bathing,” and I definitely didn’t read anything but the King James Version! Reading his book helped me back to the road of freedom and grace in Christ, and again my life was changed.

And now, my pastors, Duane and Kent Willoughby, help me stay on the road Christ wants me on. Every Sunday, one of them preaches, and I listen and grow. I’m learning to read the map and listen to directions – and my life is constantly growing and changing.

I’m grateful for these men, and many other men and women, who have been faithful to God’s call on their lives to help me along my journey. They’ve kept me from going the wrong way so many times – just like whoever that kind person was on our trip to the Virginia’s eastern shore.

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