My wife and I have been together going on 20 years. In fact, it will be 20 years this February 23rd, which is also my 39th birthday. Do the math there, I'll wait............Did you figure it out? Yes, I was 19 years old when we first started seeing each other. Amanda was 16 years old. We both have been with each other now, more than half of our lives. That is such a rare feat nowadays. We have had our share of ups and downs, bumps and bruises and a few occasions where we almost didn't make it. But we did. We made it because we wanted to make it. We stayed together because we love each other and we want to be with each other. This blog isn't about the history of how we came to be where we are now, I just wanted to give you a bit of a background before I get into the meat and potatoes of it all.
When Amanda and I started dating, I was attending Faith Church and she was attending Eastview Church. I decided that I would start going to Eastview with her because there were some people that went to Faith that just didn't like Amanda, and I didn't want to put her through that. Not long after we started going there, Amanda ended up pregnant. Yes, we were sexually active teens. I won't go into the details of how everything went down, but at the end of the day, the youth pastor, Marty Corey, the deacons and the youth group parents all told Amanda and I to leave Eastview and never return. We were crushed. We were heartbroken and our spirits were ripped in half. The family that we needed the most, our church family, had turned their backs on us and abandoned us. They had left us out in the cold to face the world and our mountainous problems alone. We tried turning to Faith Church for help. We went out to the youth group a couple of times and were made to feel like outcasts by the rest of the group. Only one person stood by us and that was Stu Henning, the leader of the Faith Church Youth Group. He was a comfort to us in a time when we had none.
Because of the way we were treated whenever we went out to Faith, we just stopped going. Over time, Amanda and I became bitter. Well, me more than her. I turned my back on my faith and began to resent those who had faith. It went so far as to me hating believers and hating God. All because of the youth leader at Eastview, Marty Corey. I have a question for you Marty. What did Jesus tell us was our last commandment? You should know this one Marty. After all, you are a pastor at a church now. What was that? Jesus told us to "love one another, as I have loved you". Yet you didn't. You didn't love two very lost and very scared teenagers. It is directly because of that lack of love that two faithful followers lost their way. We strayed from God and in some cases (mine), even hated Him. It took nearly 15 years for Amanda and I to go back to church because of your actions and the actions of those at Eastview.
So let's fast forward to yesterday. Amanda and one of her closest friends went to an Eastview Youth Group reunion of sorts. Amanda was hesitant at first but eventually decided to go because she had built some pretty good relationships with other kids during her time there. I did not attend because of work. God's timing is perfectly perfect. When Amanda and her friend arrived at the church, Marty Corey was already there. Everyone said hello to everyone. Amanda's friend introduced Amanda BY NAME to Marty Corey with the words "And you remember Amanda". Stoned. Marty Corey did not say a word to her nor even nod his head in her direction. Twenty years have gone by. TWENTY YEARS!!! Yet this man who has been in the church his whole life, who has studied the word of God HIS WHOLE LIFE and who has made his living TEACHING the word of God, acted like a jilted girl who had been stood up on prom night. What a professional! What a great man of God! What a TERRIFIC example of Christ you are displaying, Mr. Corey. God sure is proud of you today my friend. Remember when I said that God's timing is perfectly perfect? It is a good thing that I had to work yesterday, because I probably would have been at that church yesterday, and I know for a fact that I would not have held my tongue nor my temper and I would have blasted that man for the walking hypocrite that he is all the way back to Kentucky.
While discussing how things went at the reunion with Amanda last night, she told me that his behavior yesterday toward her solidified her struggle with forgiveness. Yes, she has always struggled in this area of her faith. I, on the other hand am a very forgiving person. That is, unless you have caused hurt or harm to my wife. Then I can become a person whose path you have no desire to cross, and then there is no room in my heart for forgiveness. You, Mr. Marty Corey, have no place in my heart for forgiveness. Let me also say, that it is by the grace of God that I was not at the reunion yesterday. You should really thank Him for allowing those stars to align to where I was at work yesterday. I would have torn into you in a way that only a lion can. I would have broke you down so much and so quickly, that the only response from you would have been to piss yourself and fall down in a heap of sloppy tears. When your time on this earth is done, Marty Corey, God will go through your entire life with you. He will point to your actions with Amanda and I and He will weep. He will ask you why you abandoned those whom you were put in charge of. He will ask you why you did not do as His son told you to do, and that is to love. God will judge you for your sins and He will tell you the kind of hypocrite you have been your ENTIRE life! He will then look to His Son and see your sins upon Jesus' back. He will look back to you and tell you that He still loves you and that He forgives you. He will then tell you that "Joe Olmsted still loves you and that Joe Olmsted forgives you, because that is what I have called Joe Olmsted to do."
In closing, if you wish to share this with Marty Corey, please do. I would LOVE for him to see how his poor choices affected two young lives so much.
