Awakening is a word that really paints a picture in my mind of having been either asleep or unaware; then your eyes open and what’s going on around you comes into focus.

The reality of this is still as vivid today as it was 24 years ago.

I had just turned 17 years old; I lived a pretty average life at the time. My parents were separated after 29 years, I was confused and mad, and my friends were decent people just trying to find their way to fit in with everyone else.

Yep, I would say that was pretty average for where I grew up in North Carolina.

But somewhere deep inside I was looking for something, maybe it was someone; I really didn’t know. What I was sure of at this point, was that my level of frustration was increasing.

Several afternoons a week and most weekends I worked at a local grocery store. This particular Saturday was not much different than any others; I had spent the night before drinking with a friend, my mom was out of town and my dad didn’t live with us any longer. That afternoon working at the grocery store proved to be the beginning of something amazing in my life.

I had just finished packing someone’s groceries in their vehicle, and while on my way back inside the store, I stopped for a moment. It would be impossible to forget this little moment in time because it turned out to be life changing.

After stopping with my cart, I looked up into the sky and stated the following:

“God, if you are really real, if you really are who they say you are, if you truly exist, I am asking you to show up in my life and prove it to me. I don’t want to believe you exist because that’s what everyone says. I want to know for myself.”

The very next weekend, I wound up in a Sunday night church service which was a very unusual thing for our family. It was during this service that God touched my heart, made Himself so very real to me, and He absolutely changed my life forever.

From that point, I decided that if God loved me enough that He would hear a young kid in a small town in the middle of nowhere that I would follow Him all the days of my life.

I learned during this time that if a person would just take some time, maybe when there’s no one else around, and ask God to make Himself real, He always does.

Wayne Lanier
Middleburg Campus Pastor