Welcome to Christianity.com. My name is Robert Hampshire, and I am a Christian. Here's why: When I was a child, around third grade, somebody came by my house and shared the gospel with my parents, with my dad specifically to start with, and my dad because God began to work in his heart. My dad gave his life to Christ, and God changed him. It didn't stop with my dad.
Instead, my mom came to faith in Jesus Christ, and then my brothers did, and eventually, I would when I was around fifth grade. And at that time, which was 10 years old or so, I remember just being very compelled and convicted of my sin. I just recognized that I wasn't who God wanted me to be.
I was a sinner. And so I remember just very clearly sitting actually on our front porch, and it just, this impending, I don't know, the doom that I felt this, just the weight of my sin and even fear of what would happen to my life and even my afterlife. You know, am I going to go to hell? And I remember all those thoughts and all that weight just kind of resting on me.
I was familiar enough with the gospel then that the next time we went to a church service, I went forward and prayed, but God had already done the work in my life. And, like I said, I was 10 years old and didn't know what all that meant. I just knew I needed salvation.
I knew I needed God, and I knew that God loved me. Fast-forward, maybe just a couple of years through middle school, and I would say God called me to be a pastor. God put in my heart a desire to preach, teach, and lead His people.
But of course, in middle school, how far could that go? I didn't know. Or what would that even mean? I didn't know. As I got through high school and college, I began to seek out what that meant.
So I kind of went in this direction, in the music direction and youth ministry direction. Has God called me to be a missionary? I really didn't know. So, what I ended up doing when I was in college was starting to get a degree in radio broadcasting.
Well, that didn't really get me anywhere, so I changed it to Christian counseling or biblical counseling. And that was okay, but it just didn't quite fit.
That wasn't quite right where God was leading me. As time progressed, I kind of fell into leading worship music for a church. Now, let me be honest: When I first started doing that, it was horrible.
I mean, it was. I didn't know what I was doing. I didn't know how to do it.
Nobody ever really showed me. After a couple of years, I got to the point where I realized I had to learn if I was going to do this well. So I just dug in, and I began to learn, study, and practice, which is a good idea.
So I reached the point where I was competent and thought, "This is what God has called me to do." He saved me and called me into pastoral ministry so that I would be a worship pastor. But then God removed me from that situation and put me in a different situation, and it began to be clear to me that God was calling me to youth ministry, student ministry.
So I reached the point where I was competent with that. I felt really good about it, like, okay, this is what God has called me to do.
But then God moved me to something different, and then God called us to plant a church, and then that ended. And so what I've learned through the course of my middle school, high school, early adult life, and even now into my 40-year-old life, what I've realized is that that day that God saved me, he put me on a path, and that's not my path. That's not a path I came up with for which I need to make all the decisions.
Certainly, there are times when God wants me to decide or lay out some options before me, but that's not my path. It's God's path for me. Not only has God laid my life on a path, but God has also offered to me, presented to me, and put his Holy Spirit inside of me to guide me on that path.
Well, not only that, God is so gracious and merciful that when I veer off that path, and I have so many times, God forgives me and helps me get back on that path. And then, not only that, but as I've walked on that path, God has blessed me with the opportunity to bring others along with me. And God has even given me a wife, and God has even given me children and great friends to walk with me, to go hand in hand or arm in arm.
And so, why am I a Christian? Not only has God called me to follow him, but he has also been so faithful every step of the way. Even when I wasn't faithful, God continued moving me along. And I believe, because of how faithful I've seen God throughout my life, that he will be faithful to take me to be with him in the end.
Or as Jesus promised, he who began a good work in you will be faithful to complete it into the day of completion. And so God is faithful. And so, for you today, be blessed.
And I hope you'll visit Christianity.com as I do regularly because God is not finished with you or your story. Amen.
Photo Credit: SWN Design
