Hey there, Christianity.com, this is Tommy Lynch. I am a father, a husband, a friend, and I am a Christian, and I wanted to share why and why that will never change.
I was raised in the church, was an acolyte, belonged to the youth group, sang in the children's choir, and was always involved in church as a youngster. But thinking back, it never was really something that I understood as a relationship. I just remember going through the rituals, the prayers, and the ceremony and the liturgy, but never really heard about how God desired a relationship with me. So life progressed, and I began to experiment with alcohol and drugs and found myself getting further and further away from God and from church. When I went off to college, that whole church thing basically stopped, and I indulged quite a bit in abusing alcohol and drugs. Finally, at the age of 24, I realized I'd had enough, I couldn't handle it anymore. I decided I was an alcoholic, needed to do something about it, and found myself in the rooms of a 12-step program. My life began to change. I was introduced to God through the 12 steps, sort of a generic God, a God that I could create a power that I could just make up on my own, which didn't make a whole lot of sense to me from my upbringing. However, I decided that this 12-step program was a place for me to potentially get better.
I was actually reintroduced to church through the 12-step program. My folks had a new pastor who had been called to our church over to dinner. I was there for that dinner, and I got to meet him and felt comfortable with him. I made an appointment, went in, and shared with him that I was an alcoholic and that I was in a 12-step program and just wanted him to know that.
He actually turned around and shared with me that he was in another 12-step program. We had that connection. I began to attend church regularly, and I would say I was sort of reintroduced to the God of the Bible and introduced to this whole concept that God desired a relationship with me through the person of Jesus. That just was really cool. I hadn't really heard that before. As time has gone by, I've been sober for a long time now, over 30 years, and being in recovery has been a real ministry tool for me to share the gospel with other people in recovery where appropriate.
I love the Lord, I love spending time in the Bible. In fact, I'm in my second year of reading through the Bible in a year. This year I'm doing it chronologically and just love it. I can't imagine life without it. I've surrounded myself with other men who are following Christ and who are seeking to develop a relationship with the Lord that just makes them a happier, more productive, useful person. I'm grateful to be able to share that with you.
Photo Credit: SWN Design
