{"id":4696,"date":"2014-05-05T17:05:53","date_gmt":"2014-05-05T21:05:53","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.drslewis.org\/camille\/?p=4696"},"modified":"2014-05-05T17:04:08","modified_gmt":"2014-05-05T21:04:08","slug":"on-monday-he-gave-me-the-gift-of-love","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.drslewis.org\/camille\/2014\/05\/05\/on-monday-he-gave-me-the-gift-of-love\/","title":{"rendered":"On Monday He gave me the gift of love"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/embed.spotify.com\/?uri=spotify:track:4qJ5FYleL82SFuCheDa1WL\" width=\"300\" height=\"380\" frameborder=\"0\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><strong>My Testimony<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>My parents were saved when I was just nine months old, so I essentially grew up in a Christian home. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.drslewis.org\/camille\/2008\/08\/12\/good-ol-mom\/\">My mom<\/a> was raised nominally Catholic, and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.drslewis.org\/camille\/2008\/08\/dear-ol-dad\/\">my dad<\/a> was raised Jehovah\u2019s Witness. So when my brother Steve came home from <a href=\"http:\/\/www.communitybaptist.com\/\">the local Baptist church\u2019s<\/a> Vacation Bible School saying that he had \u201casked Jesus into his heart,\u201d the phrasing was new to my family. Within a few years, they were attending Sunday morning services so that Steve could get his attendance award for AWANA. The ladies invited Mom to their Bible study shortly after I was born, but since I was premature, Mom didn\u2019t want to leave our home. So she suggested they meet in our home. Since Mom felt more confident in her own place, she felt bold enough to ask her questions about the Faith. She accepted Jesus as her Savior there in our living room, and Dad was converted in a revival service that summer.<\/p>\n<p>In her faith, Mom found her voice. When Steve was afraid that he would be \u201c<a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=X1FcTKNXlO0\">left behind<\/a>\u201d in the Rapture, Mom purposed to help children feel confident in Jesus. She taught CEF classes there in South Bend, Indiana in the mobile Good News Club with a two-year-old me hanging on her leg. At the age of four when I heard <a href=\"https:\/\/www.drslewis.org\/camille\/2010\/09\/05\/its-a-miracle-the-bad-news\/\">Little Marcy<\/a> singing, \u201cJesus Knocks, Knocks, Knocks at the Door of Your Heart,\u201d I asked Mom what that meant. She explained that Jesus wants to cleanse me of my sin and be my Savior. And there, on that same couch where she accepted Jesus, I asked Jesus into my heart in May 1973.<\/p>\n<p>I attended Christian day schools there in South Bend and later in Tulsa and then in Warren, Michigan. All the schools we chose were dominated by Bob Jones University graduates. They were some of my favorite teachers. And when my brother attended BJU, our trips to Greenville were a happy family vacation. Therefore, my choosing BJU was in the natural course of life\u2019s events for me. So in 1986, I began my undergraduate degree in English at Bob Jones University. That Spring I met the man that would become my best friend and dear husband, <a href=\"http:\/\/www.drslewis.org\/grant\/\">Grant<\/a>. We both graduated in 1990 and again in 1992.<\/p>\n<p>We were and are \u201cgood kids.\u201d Both raised Baptist, both rule-followers, both introverted, and both rather bookish. I taught Public Speaking as a graduate student, and in the classroom I found my voice. I enjoyed my students and seeing their progress within a semester and over the course of a degree. I committed myself to a larger, more other-worldly project in fundamentalism. My pursuing a Ph.D. at Indiana University was an expression of all that\u2014a very personal goal as well as professional preparation for my life\u2019s work.<\/p>\n<p>Everything changed for me, however, in July, 2001. Everything. After an ultrasound, we discovered that <a href=\"https:\/\/www.drslewis.org\/camille\/2001\/07\/09\/elises-birth-story\/\">our daughter Elise\u2019s heart stopped<\/a>, just three days after her due date. On July 7<sup>th<\/sup>, she was born still. That tragedy rattled me. I started over in my Faith. I felt God carry me through all of it, holding me and crying with me. Every sermon seemed to be just for me, every song was performed just for me, and every Scripture passage was written right to me. After four pregnancy losses, our son <a href=\"https:\/\/www.drslewis.org\/camille\/2008\/02\/14\/ebenezer-20\/\">Isaac<\/a>, that precious screamer, was born in December 2003. Everything changed again. I read Isaiah 49:15-16 as if it were just for me:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>Can a mother forget the baby at her breast and have no compassion on the child she has borne? Though she may forget, I will not forget you!<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>I realized that God loved me <em>better<\/em> than I loved Isaac\u2014on a foundational, organic level. And if God loved me that me that way, He loved my students that way. So every student who came into my office was not just a task or an ID number, but a precious child cherished by his mother and by God even more. As I read my Bible, I saw a more loving God and . . . well, a more Pharisaical <em>me<\/em>. That rule-following, good-girl status might have made me feel better about my moralistic self, but I realized it wasn\u2019t putting me in any better standing with God. Jesus took care of all that, and my precise obedience was nothing but filthy rags in comparison. Jesus\u2019 righteousness was all I needed.<\/p>\n<p>And things changed still. My living out my new Grace-life to my students\u2014telling them that they are worse off than they knew, that they are more loved than they could ever hope, and the Gospel is far greater than they could ever imagine\u2014rattled those around me like it had rattled me. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.drslewis.org\/camille\/ebenezers\/\">By October 2007, God had pushed us out of fundamentalism but He still carried us close<\/a>. God rattled my parents and my brother\u2019s family, too. My parents, then\u00a0in their 80s, are recent members of First Baptist Church of Taylors, my brother and his family attend North Hills Community Church, and Grant and I are members in good standing at Mitchell Road Presbyterian where we serve in the choir.<\/p>\n<p>Just a few months after my parents joined Taylors, Mom reminisced to me, \u201cYou know, Camille, after 40 years, we are <em>finally<\/em> home.\u201d It took God awhile, but He did bring us all home.<\/p>\n<p>When I sat in that hospital bed in 2001 waiting for the epidural to wear off, having just said \u201chello\u201d and \u201cgood bye\u201d to my daughter within an hour, our friend Darrin asked my Dad about how he came to Christ. It was the perfect question for the occasion. Dad brightened as he remembered how God carried him through the Army, through a cult, to marry a nice but nominal Catholic girl, through his enormous and intimidating set of questions, all the way to Jesus. It struck me in the middle of that difficult day how God was taking care of Dad and Mom and Grant and me. And now He carries our Isaac and his brother Gavin, too.<\/p>\n<p>God\u2019s still carrying all of us. That much I know.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>My Testimony My parents were saved when I was just nine months old, so I<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,17],"tags":[845,844],"class_list":["post-4696","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-faith","category-remember","tag-testimony","tag-this-little-light-of-mine"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v28.2 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>On Monday He gave me the gift of love - A Time To Laugh<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.drslewis.org\/camille\/2014\/05\/05\/on-monday-he-gave-me-the-gift-of-love\/\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Camille Lewis\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"5 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.drslewis.org\\\/camille\\\/2014\\\/05\\\/05\\\/on-monday-he-gave-me-the-gift-of-love\\\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.drslewis.org\\\/camille\\\/2014\\\/05\\\/05\\\/on-monday-he-gave-me-the-gift-of-love\\\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Camille Lewis\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.drslewis.org\\\/camille\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/e93a8c9ec8fb8b926471114158437f82\"},\"headline\":\"On Monday He gave me the gift of love\",\"datePublished\":\"2014-05-05T21:05:53+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.drslewis.org\\\/camille\\\/2014\\\/05\\\/05\\\/on-monday-he-gave-me-the-gift-of-love\\\/\"},\"wordCount\":1029,\"commentCount\":4,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.drslewis.org\\\/camille\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/e93a8c9ec8fb8b926471114158437f82\"},\"keywords\":[\"Testimony\",\"This Little Light of Mine\"],\"articleSection\":[\"Believe\",\"Remember\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/www.drslewis.org\\\/camille\\\/2014\\\/05\\\/05\\\/on-monday-he-gave-me-the-gift-of-love\\\/#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.drslewis.org\\\/camille\\\/2014\\\/05\\\/05\\\/on-monday-he-gave-me-the-gift-of-love\\\/\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.drslewis.org\\\/camille\\\/2014\\\/05\\\/05\\\/on-monday-he-gave-me-the-gift-of-love\\\/\",\"name\":\"On Monday He gave me the gift of love - 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