Quick note from Joel: If you haven't met Glen yet you really need to, Glen is on the leadership team for elevate and has a great story to share how God found him and gave him a new life. Glen runs our media on Tuesday nights, but more importantly he has a passion to share the love of Jesus with our generation, here is his blog submission:
Healing Power of Jesus: (True Story)
Several years ago I had an opportunity to go to a conference for youth leaders. It was in Sacramento and several top Christian artists were going to be there, so it promised to be a good time of fun and worship. There was a group of six of us going from my church and we piled in the car and set out for Sacramento. I was driving, and while on the way I started feeling a pain in my shoulder. It was a deep, aching pain that was literally sucking the life out of me. It was nothing new though. This pain had been bothering me for months and there appeared to be no specific cause, and I couldn’t find any relief from the pain no matter what I tried. It was there and then it would be gone again. It might last ten minutes, or more than an hour. I just had to “ride it out”.
So we arrived in Sacramento, got checked in to our hotel, and headed for the conference. It was great. Chris Tomlin was our worship leader for the first two days and there was so much energy in the room. Youth leaders are kind of crazy anyway so imagine hundreds of them all together in one building worshipping, unashamed, with their hands raised toward heaven, praising our awesome savior. It was one of the most incredible experiences of my life. But on day two, during the evening service, it happened again. The pain returned. It was right in the middle of a worship set with Chris Tomlin leading. I remember vividly how I tried to raise my arms in the air and had to bring them down because it was making the pain worse. I was frustrated that the pain would have to come now. How unfair. It was stealing my joy.
That’s when it happened. A vision of a scene from the movie “The Passion of the Christ” flashed into my mind. It was when Jesus was carrying the cross through town on His way to be crucified. He was beaten, bloody, spit upon, and cursed at. He fell down under the weight of the cross He was carrying and they began to beat Him more. I could see the blood all over Him, dripping to the ground and the pain in His eyes as He carried our sins to that hill. I watched Him rise back onto His feet and continue along the road. The vision was only seconds long.
That’s when I told myself that if Jesus could endure that pain for me, that I could handle the pain of lifting my hands in the air to honor Him. So that’s what I did. I raised my arms as high as I could and for as long as I could. Both my arms were actually burning in pain by the time the song was over and I felt my joy return in the pain I was sharing with my redeemer, with my savior, with the one who died to save me. I will never forget that night as long as I live. Even now, when I’m standing in church, or at a conference, and I start to feel a pain in my legs or arms, from standing or raising my hands to God, I remember that night in Sacramento, when I found joy in suffering with Christ. I don’t sit down, I don’t lower my arms. The pain in my muscles always bring that picture back to my mind of Jesus carrying that cross, and I smile and praise Him all the more.
We had a great time at the conference and came home with joyful hearts and sore throats (from all the singing). It was actually about two weeks later that I realized something. Remember the pain in my shoulder I talked about? It suddenly dawned on me that I didn’t remember feeling that pain lately. In fact I couldn’t remember having that pain since that night at the conference. I thought that was pretty cool. It was nice to have two weeks of pain free days and nights. But you know what’s even more awesome than that? That was over three years ago, and the pain has never returned! That’s the healing power of Jesus my friends. Jesus is our faithful friend.
By Glen Bryant
1 comment:
Great story, Glen. Thanks for sharing your heart.
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