by Carolyn Corbett
A Story of
Faith
I
28
WINTER 2012 | her voice
photo by Joey Halvorson
In 1998 Kathy Carlson received Christ as her Lord and Savior. Up until then she’d made a mess of her life and was a very bitter woman, bitter with specific circumstances and bitter with life in general. She had believed in God because she could do that in a very general kind of way. But believing in Jesus required something very specific. Her sticking point was forgiveness. She believed she was the one to pay the price for the mistakes she’d made. She hadn’t accepted that Jesus had paid the price for her sins and forgiven her. But that changed. Her grandmother had Alzheimer’s disease and was dying. This grandmother had consistently shown her the kind of love associated with the love of God through Christ. She had been dying for five or six days and the last night Kathy stayed beside her all night, thanking her grandma in spirit for all the kind things she had done, telling her it was OK for her to go. Kathy was 33 years old when her grandmother passed. Soon after, she began attending Lakewood Free Church, sobbing through the first four weeks of sermons on grace. She joined a small group Bible study. When she started to tell the three women about her past, they didn’t judge her. They prayed with her. On Sept. 23, 1998, she opened the door of her heart to the Lord. She hit the floor on her hands and knees in reverence and had a personal encounter with Jesus. In those moments of surrender, she had an actual physical feeling of having more room to breathe. She gave over her life – past, present and future – to Jesus Christ. From that day forward her life changed radically. She loved and lived the Word of God. She began to serve as a small group leader for