I BELIEVE
From Chaos to Peace Zach Strobeck
I grew up knowing about Jesus and asked him to come into by heart when I was five years old. I just knew that we were all sinners and that Jesus died and rose again to save us. He is the one who brings life into someone’s life. The best and greatest things in life come from Jesus. And I just remember learning about him in ss, grammar school, and I think that’s what stuck with me. All of us are sinful and Jesus is the only person who will bring us past that and allow you to live with true joy in life. Before Christ took hold of me, I set my mind on worldly things. To me, joy was basically the ways of the world. Like a lot of young guys, I was preoccupied about making money and having relationships. That was my mindset, and I didn’t even realize that all the joy in life comes from Jesus. At this time, I was involved in church on and off. I would go to church listen to the sermon, and about 15-20 minutes in, I would think, Man, I hope I can concentrate. When my faith did become more real me, and I went to church, it was, and is different. I want to go to church. I want to listen to the sermons and fellowship. It’s not hard. Jesus hadn’t really taken a place in my life or made a radical difference in me until my late twenties. About four years ago, I was just thinking about everything that was going on in the world, in politics. It seemed like there was a surge in chaos. This feeling of chaos was just something that was with me. I also knew I wasn’t taking care of my spiritual priorities. When I was living more of a worldly life, I would think about the future or death a lot and it was kind of scary to think about. I was trying to escape, drinking more than I should have. And once you go down that road and you’re not living out your faith, you keep adding more sins to your sin. It’s like living death by a thousand cuts scenario. Sin truly is the sting of death. I had been following, the wrong road, and it was all a deception from the devil. That is what sin is, that is what temptation is. The devil trying to tempt us to go down that road. I was at a point where I was having a hard day and felt like I was going into an existential crisis. I was incredibly anxious. I never felt like that before, and I began to remember everything I had learned growing up. I started to pray and call on the name of the Lord, just saying, “Lord, do what you will. Help me, Lord.” It was that moment I faced the fact that there was and is nothing I can do to help myself or anything in the world that can help. It made a difference for me. I started taking things more seriously.
When the initial COIVD quarantine started, I started doing Bible studies with friends on Twitter, using voice chat. One of my friends who doesn’t know Christ yet suggested the Bible posts on Twitter and sharing Scripture has gotten me into a lot of interesting conversations. Sure, it’s good to go to school and seminary, but the Lord is the one who does all the work. Do what he wants you to do. He will take you where he wants you. I became more involved in my faith and had more boldness to proclaim Jesus. In all the chaos, I learned to lean on Jesus first. He is the truth. We won’t understand anything without him. I’m not perfect. There are things I still struggle with. I make mistakes and sin, but when you’re saved, you do realize that nothing will separate you from God. That’s the how I look at it—if there’s anything I need, I give it to the Lord. I used to say, “why, Lord?” a lot about my physical condition. [Zach has Duchenne, a type of muscular dystrophy.] In my 20s, it was hard to see friends go off to college and graduate and realize that my life wasn’t going to be anywhere near that—a planned life like regular people. The main issue with my disability is the restrictions I have and the opportunities I lacked had I been more able bodied. I feel that as I suffer, I can look at it and see how Lord using it. I’m not glad I am in a wheelchair, and I used to have a lot of insecurities with it, but at this point the Lord is using all this to shape me. With Christ, there’s always hope. I don’t have doubts, but I do have frustrations, but at the end of the day, I don’t feel hopeless. Jesus is real, and I need to rely on him. When the bad times come, we should pray. When the good times come, we should pray. The Lord is moving me toward this and helping me not to go off toward the things of the flesh to distract me, but to pray. Trust me, following Jesus is the best thing a person can do.
15
