I remember it like it was yesterday.  It is the story that I hear all Christians talk about… it was “my story.”  It was a manifestation of God that I will never forget.

I was baptized at age seven.  I knew I wanted to know God then.  I don’t question my conversion.  I just know the God I knew then and even now is much different than my childhood experience.   I have learned that tragic events typically draw us closer to God.

My tragic event was my mom’s illness.  She didn’t get sick overnight, but it seemed to catch up with her one day while she was at work.  I had ordered us Jason’s Deli, a meal she never got to eat.  Every time I called her job, they told me she was in the ER. Okay, my mom worked in the Neurotrauma unit, so it never dawned on me that this time she was the patient.

My mom was diagnosed with an enlarged heart.  My mom cares for so many and having a big heart finally caught up with her.  My mom was in the hospital for days. During these days I had been living at the hospital.  I am so thankful for my mom, her friends, her coworkers, and my aunts.  I was picked up and dropped off at the hospital, wearing whatever clothes I could find.

I am so thankful that God continues to bless me with her.  I had relatives and friends who have lost their mothers, but I am one of the fortunate ones.  When she finally got out, she wanted to go to church with me.  It was an ordinary Sunday; my mom worked every other Sunday and would routinely come to church. This Sunday she was coming back after a hospitalization.  I was in the vestibule with my friend, which was typical for Sundays that I wasn’t required to sing or participate in the service.

The service was ending when the usher came to the vestibule and told me I needed to come back to the sanctuary.  He said my mother needed me.  So, I rushed in to find my mother at the altar receiving prayer.  Afterwards, I did not feel quite right about the prayer.  I didn’t know the word at the time, but I discerned something about that particular moment at the altar.

It didn’t take long for my mom to get much better and almost back to herself.  During that same time, my grandmother was getting progressively worse.  My mom’s friend whom I knew as a child was a minister.  She offered to pray for my grandmother who was days away from death.  And in the midst of her prayer, I opened my eyes because I had never witnessed anything like that moment.  This prayer was much different than that altar experience.

She eventually said amen and all I could say was… Wow, how did she do that?  I wanted to go where she was.  I wanted to be at a church that I could know, and experience God like I just did.  She prayed with boldness, power, and confidence like I never experienced before.

So, I followed my heart I left the church I had known for years.  I left to know God.  I am glad I left. It prepared me for where I am today.  That was 15 years ago.