love story...our story {pt. 4, guest post by the mr.}

Read part one here.
Read part two here.
Read part three here.

...and then continue with part four below.

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Hey to all the readers of my wife's blog.  You get the pleasure of hearing my side of the story for once!  I don’t know if volunteered is the correct term, but nevertheless, I agreed to write this next part of the story.

As Kristin left off, everything WAS going splendid, but as the spring semester began to pick up, so did my involvement with on-campus activities and intramural sports.

I am the kind of person that has to stay busy.

My freshmen year at Iowa State, I was not involved with much outside of my class work and I was miserable. It took me a year to figure out that in order to meet people and be involved in things going on around campus, I had to volunteer myself for different organizations and activities. 

Thus, as a sophomore, I got involved in: Student Alumni Leadership Council, the Campus Blood Drive, Dance Marathon, VEISHEA and I became a STAR (STudent Admissions Represent). On top of this, I started working in the education computer lab (which happened to be a great decision since that is where Kristin and I first started talking). 

My junior year, I continued my involvement in these organizations and took on more leadership roles. 

Sure, my daily schedule got busier and busier, but I would try to squeeze in thirty minutes with Kristin at the end of the day. 

Not to mention, I was frequently not finding time to squeeze in my Bible readings and prayer time. 

God and Kristin teamed up to change my life around that last weekend in February. 

It was a Saturday morning and my folks were in town. I called Kristin up to see if she wanted to go to lunch with us before I had to head to the church to help coach the 6^th grade boys basketball team (oh yeah, I was coaching Upwards Basketball at the time too…) Kristin told me over the phone that she didn’t think she would be able to go to lunch with us, and that she didn’t think this relationship was working out anymore. 

She had broken up with me over the phone.

NBD, I didn’t really give it a second thought.

I went about my day and was not really too phased by the break-up.

The next morning at church was when God changed my life.

That Sunday morning, I went to church with my parents and my younger brother. We sat down on the left side of the church (if you are looking at the stage).

As the service started, I felt like I was hit with a ton of bricks.

I am not using this quote metaphorically. 

I really felt like I got smacked with something as I spotted Kristin across the sanctuary sitting with some friends.

God spoke to me very clearly that day and said, 

“Michael, you idiot. I gave you this wonderful, beautiful sister in Christ to be your partner and to cherish. You didn’t cherish her. Get her back.” 

As I sang the worship songs, I started to cry. I tried to fight back the tears, but it was a losing battle.

These were just the first set of many tears to come over the next month.

For Valentine’s Day earlier that month, I had given Kristin tickets for a Third Day concert that was coming to town in late February/early March (the concert ended up being on a day after we broke up).

I knew what I needed to do.

I needed to beg and plead with her to take me back and give me another chance to make her more of a priority in my life and to cherish her the way I was supposed to cherish her.

I had a great time at the concert.  I enjoyed being with her, and I went to bed hoping that things were back to the way they were. I woke up the next morning to an email saying that while she had a good time at the concert, it did not change her mind about us not being able to be together. 

I was crushed.

Over the next two weeks, I was an emotional wreck.

I would like to say that I had good days and bad days, but it was more of a roller coaster than that. 

I had good minutes and bad minutes.

Through the end of February and March, I lost a total of 16 pounds. The two saving graces were my best friend Ryan, and Jesus Christ.

Ryan played the role of the best friend that a guy could ever hope to have. 

He took me to the gym. 

He bought me some McDonalds. 

He did everything under his power to try and cheer me up. Fortunately, I also had the other guy who truly does have everything under his power on my side. 

 

My Savior Jesus Christ was my true refuge and strength. 

Over that time, He daily encouraged me and taught me new things about being a Godly man. I found that my campus commitments seemed more and more meaningless. I made sure I attended everything I was committed to, but I found it increasingly easier to say no. I found time to read my Bible and pray.  A LOT.

People often talk about being refined by fire and I now knew exactly what they were talking about.

I had given Kristin some space for several weeks and now.  It was time for me to do what God told me to do on that Sunday morning at church and “get her back.” I found ways to happen to be in the same place as she was and I tried to play everything cool, while being as gentlemanly as possible. I thought I was doing well. We started to email each other back and forth a little bit, and it was evident that I was NOT doing well. Her emails were nice, in that she was happy that I was in the Word a lot and God was teaching me lots, but it was becoming clearly evident that her romantic interests were not what mine were. 

I was crushed…again. 

I did the only thing that I knew to do and I hit my knees.

I prayed,

“God, you told me to get this girl back, that she was my sister in Christ and the one I was supposed to cherish. I tried, but I can’t do it. I GIVE UP.” 

As the saying goes, you let go, and you let God.

…and THAT’S when God began to work.

**Stay tuned for part 5...apparently, this is going to go on forever.  Is anyone even reading this still?  Props to you, if you are.**

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