Christy Cundiff

From Bitter to Better....

 

As a child, I was raised in a Christian home. I went to church every time the door was open, and was saved at a very young age. As a teenager, I’m not sure why, but we stopped going to church regularly, so I fell away from church, but God continued showing Himself mightily all through my teen years, even when I turned on His ways and decided to try life “my way.”  Even so, He continued guiding me. Like the Good Shepherd He is, He led me to Kentucky for schooling.  It was there that I met the love of my life.  Even more importantly, it was there that I gave God my full devotion.  Yes, I had been saved, but I had never submitted myself to His will until I was 18 years old.

 

The church we attended in Kentucky was my leap board to spiritual growth.  Through the teaching of our wonderful pastor and the encouragement and leadership of my husband, I found my footing in faith, being grounded in the Word and stronger in my relationship with my Jesus. 

 

Seven years later, the Lord led Tim and I, and our new little family back to Georgia.  We couldn’t have been more excited to share what the Lord had been teaching us.  We started attending a small church in Rome, and like most small churches, there were many needs for help in ministry and teachers.  Well, Tim and I dove right in!!  We taught Sunday school classes, lead music, choir, VBS, Christmas plays… anything and everything we could.  It was a wonderful time, but ten years later we found ourselves worn slap out!!  I was so tired, I had grown bitter, with God, with church.   I told God when we left, that all I wanted was a church where I could hide.  A place to sit on a pew and do nothing.  Where no one would notice if I was even there or not.

 

When the Lord led us to the church we're at now, it was a breath of fresh air.   I tried to sit and rest, but old habits die hard, and before I knew it, I had tried getting involved in ministry once again… without the Lord’s leadership, this time.  If you’ve ever tried doing the Lord’s work without His blessing or presence, then you know it’s like trying to break down a brick wall using only your head!!  As I cried out… GRIPED… to God about my frustrations, He reminded me of my request. He said, “Remember? All you wanted to do was sit on the sidelines. So sit.”  And I did. For three years, I sat, miserably on the sidelines.

 

Earlier this year, 2015, I began to feel a familiar stirring way down deep in my soul.  I told Tim, "I think it’s almost time.  I think, I MAY be ready for ministry again." 

 

 A few months later, as I was lying in bed, sick on a Sunday, I started watching one of Bro. Adrian Roger’s old sermons.  He talking about the carnal/backslidden Christian.  Foolishly, I thought I was safe, until he said, “If you can remember a time when you were closer to God than you are right this minute, you are a backslidden Christian.”  Well, that was a profound slap in the face!!! I cried and begged for forgiveness and promised to live a more devoted life to Him. 

 

Bro. Rogers went on to say that every fruitful Christian ought to have a ministry, an outlet to share with others what The Lord is giving to you.  I told the Lord then and there, that if He’d open a door for ministry, I’d walk through it.  Within two days, a door was presented, and within a week, I had been given three different opportunities to minister in our church. 

 

 

I am so glad that we serve a God of second chances.  Second, third, fourth…. I will never understand or be able to grasp the love of God.  How He continues to love us, even when we are so bitter that we can  barely love ourselves.  Praise God, from whom all blessings flow.

 

Because of God's love and grace,

Christy Cundiff