This week we get to witness God’s transforming power in a story shared by our very own Jennifer Camp…
‘For I know the plans I have for you,’ declares the LORD,
‘plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future’ (Jeremiah 29:11).
My husband was the one I almost didn’t meet. My well-meaning friends in my college Christian fellowship did not want me to take the internship. It was in Washington, D.C., across the country, and they thought I was too vulnerable and prone to making bad choices about intimacy with guys. I had just confessed my past to these new friends a few months earlier. So my sharing that I was going to head to Washington for the summer to work with at-risk kids to explore whether or not I wanted to be a teacher felt, to them, like a red flag.
I sat in my friend’s dorm room as he laid out the reasons why I shouldn’t take the internship, but should instead attend a college Christian retreat. He did a lot of talking. I did a lot of listening. While the details of the conversation have slipped away, I remember the fear that rose in me as he claimed that I would not be doing God’s will by not attending the retreat. I would be going against Him. He had been healing my heart from the effects of my bad choices, and He wasn’t done with me yet.
But I knew I had to go.
Despite being terrified that God would, indeed, desert me, if I did not heed my friend’s stern advice, my heart rebelled. How could a God who longed to heal me only love me under certain conditions? How could it be true that He wouldn’t be present with me in Washington? Why would He only be present at this retreat, in the California sunshine, with a bunch of other Christians? This wasn’t a God I wanted to know more about. It wasn’t even the God I thought I knew.
I just couldn’t believe that the God who came for me a few months before — who loved me and wanted to bring me healing despite my past — would be fickle in His love for me. While my friend’s words were harsh, I knew his intentions for me were good. I got on that plane that summer wondering if I was doing the right thing, wondering if God was mad at me, wondering if He wouldn’t be with me in Washington, worried that I wasn’t supposed to go.
When I left for Washington I was still in a long-distance relationship with my boyfriend from my previous college. It was a relationship that I should have ended long before then. But, in my insecurity and selfishness, I had held on to it like a security blanket as I transferred to a new school where I didn’t have a single friend. Before I left for the internship, this boyfriend actually proposed to me (fearful that I would forget about him for the summer), and I said ‘yes’. This is incredibly embarrassing to admit, as I had known for months that our relationship shouldn’t continue. My boyfriend had no concept of my past or of how God was trying to heal me. That’s the kind of person I still was: a person who wasn’t honest and who used relationships with guys to help me get through.
Leaving for the internship, I was ashamed of my heart, of this darkness in me that cared more about myself than another person. God was trying to heal me from the bad choices I had made, and here I was, still making them. This was the dark heart God was working to redeem.
My friend who encouraged me to not go to Washington was hoping to protect me from making another bad choice. He was fighting for my heart, trying to help me spend time with God so He could continue to heal me; but I felt I had to take the risk. I needed to see if God would go with me to Washington, too.
I met the man who would later be my husband a month into that summer. We both attended the same university, but we had never met. All of the interns were housed in the same apartment building in Arlington. His roommates knew my roommates, so we hung out together as a group. As soon as I saw him and looked into his green eyes, as soon as I saw him smile, heard him laugh, and listened to him speak, I was captivated. He was different from any man I had ever met. He was handsome and confident and smart and interesting, and — what was most significant to me at the time — he felt safe.
But of course I, engaged as I was, could not be more than friends.
The first time the group split up one Saturday, while we were in the Natural History Museum, and I found myself standing with him in front of a New Mexico exhibit, the state where my current boyfriend was from, I told him about my relationship. I told him I was engaged. A week later, the first time I had ever told a soul outside of my Bible study group, I told him about my abortion when I was sixteen. I wanted him to know who I really was. I was tired of pretending to be someone I was not. Something was stirring in me to be honest — for the first time. And I shared with him about what God was doing with me, but also about how I kept messing up.
And he listened, and he still believed I was more than my bad past choices. He knew all about me, and he still stayed close. Despite all of the dark secrets I revealed, He still cared.
My heart aches for the damage I caused to so many lives by caring more about myself than anything or anyone else. There is so much wreckage behind me, hearts trampled on, misused, neglected. I have repented of these dark choices I have made. I know I did not deserve — in meeting Justin, my husband — a second chance.
Father, thank you for how Your love for us never wears out, is not fickle, does not turn. You give us what we don’t deserve, this chance to love again. And You heal us with this Love that never ends. Let us honor You with our relationships, with hearts that love others more than ourselves. Let us love like Jesus did. Thank You for picking us up and carrying us when we fail.
Father, I pray for Your girls who have wounded hearts, who have lost hope, who need You to remind them You are with them, that they are not alone. You are their Healer, their Restorer, their Warrior, their King who connects hearts and never leaves. You love them without hesitation. You are captivated by their beauty, by the good heart You see and adore. You have good plans for them. We claim those, Father. Come for Your girls now.
Girls, how have you been given another chance?
Link Up & Share …
There are three ways to link up and share in Transformed Tuesdays. Pick what works best for you…
{Option 1} Share Your Story: Link up to a post you’ve written about that reveals God transforming work in your life.
{Option 2} Focus on the Key Verse: Link up a post in which you share your thoughts on the key verse from above.
{Option 3} Spread It Around: Share the Scripture graphic from above!
Next week’s key verse: Galatians 6:9
Galatians 6:9
Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up.
…so come on back and join us for Transformed Tuesdays…
Jennifer,
I LOVE this! Thank you for sharing your heart, for being so vulnerable and for sharing that we don’t need to hide!
Oh, I am learning I don’t like hiding! And yes, we are not meant to. . . . Thank you, Mandy!
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Praise God that His mercies are new every morning, and that He is the God of second chances! Thanks for the honest post & for hosting & God bless!
Praising God with you! Thank you, Laurie!
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So thankful for you, my friend, and your story of redemption and forgiveness. He is so good, so faithful, so loving!
Thank you, sweet friend! xo
Jennifer, this is a powerful testimony and what deep faith you had to be honest with yourself and others. I love it that you knew deep down where God was leading you. I know once I was at a crossroads and confused on where God wanted me to go. After a while the only words I heard Him say to me was -= what does your gut tell you to do? I knew right then the answer. Thanks for sharing.
That makes perfect sense to me, Jean. I’ve heard that whisper, too.:) Love to you, friend.
Such a beautiful story, Jennifer. Thank you for sharing.
Thank you, Rachelle! I love Him as the story-writer! 🙂
Thank you, Jennifer, for honestly sharing your story of second chances and God’s goodness to you.
It is so good to think about where He’s been. Oh, how that gives me hope for this today and the future! Thank you, Dolly.
Jennifer,
So, so glad I followed you over from your place. Wowzers. What a write. Beautiful, raw, and triumphant.
Amy, Biggest hug to you right now. Thank you.
Loved every word, and showed this post to someone who needed it! You are an inspiration!
Ashley, I am so thankful for His nudges to share our stories of Him! Thank you!