In our darkest moments, God is always near, patiently waiting.
God was nearby back in January when Bobby Johnston met up to hang out with old friends from a lifestyle he left behind two years ago and found himself robbed and shot in the shoulder.
“Right after I got shot, I had this sense I knew I was going to be OK,” said Bobby, who found himself praying in the ambulance. “And then I just kept hearing in my head, ‘This is wrong. Don’t do this stuff.’ I knew it was me trying to do something stupid. Maybe if I didn’t get shot, I would have gone with them and would have gotten into trouble.”
As a child, trouble seemed to follow Bobby and he often found trouble. That cycle began to change when he began attending Mariners as a teenager.
“Paul was preaching, about how he wanted people to know Jesus, and I felt that Jesus wanted to know me,” Bobby said. He began reading the Bible and talking to family and friends about his faith. He found spiritual and emotional support in the testimony of adults at Mariners who had drawn on God’s love to face down troubles of their own. “I want people to know Jesus, too. I feel that’s something everyone should know.”
That doesn’t mean he didn’t continue to find trouble from time to time. But he always found God waiting for him, patiently. “The decisions I make aren’t always the best ones,” Bobby said. “When I’m not close with God, I’m just not doing anything right, really. Staying close helps me to stay on the straight and narrow.”
Bobby is on the mend physically and spiritually. He recently had surgery to repair a severed nerve that impacts mobility in his right hand. He has redoubled efforts to stay away from bad influences in his past. He’s back at church. And he’s resting in God’s arms.
“You can never give up on God,” Bobby said. “You might not see it at the time, but if you just keep going at it, the outcomes will come through. God wants stuff to work out for you. Even when hard times come, just don’t give up.”
“I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.” Philippians 4:13 (NIV)
By Dan Page, Volunteer Storyteller
