I have always enjoyed running. It annoys most people I talk to because it comes so natural and with little effort. I ran my first race as a 3rd grader in Daytona Beach at the Easter Beach Run which is a 4 mile run down the beach on the sand...I ran it barefoot. I then went on to run for my junior high school track team and all the way through high school eventually getting a personal best in the 3 mile of 15:01. All the while I attended church and youth choir but never developed a relationship with Christ. I never gave my life to Christ but continued being a cultural Christian all the time thinking I was a Christian. I just never got it.
I turned down scholarship offers to college because I was burned out on running. My training regimen through high school consisted of 80 mile weeks and after 4 years of it I was through. I wanted to be free in college to study when I wanted to not when the athletic departments told me I had to. I went to high school in Tallahassee, Florida so I enrolled at FSU to save money, joined a fraternity and thus started the downward spiral of my life that led from one bad decision to another to another. I was your typical college frat boy...I partied more than I studied if you can call what I did studying. I eventually got a girl pregnant. Since I had been in school as long as most doctoral students without having a degree, I decided to finish and marry the mother of my unborn child. I attended church on the rare Christmas Eve I would make it to my parents. I had a tradition of meeting up with 2 guys I went to high school with at a b ar called the End Zone to close it down on Christmas Eve. I was lost without knowing why.
We moved to Atlanta where the marriage failed after producing a second child and I categorize that marriage a disaster on multiple levels especially financial. I still did not know the reason my marriage failed was due to God's absence in my life. I think we may have gone to church once on an Easter. I moved out and had to get a second job to make my financial commitments plus child support. My second job was bar tending, which helped pay my way through college, and it was old hat to me. Unfortunately I picked back up with the lifestyle that comes with bar tending and couple that with my ex-wife and the kids moving out of state I had little responsibility...so I started partying all over again.
I was bar tending a second job at a special events facility for a catering company when I met my wife, Kim. I had gotten back on my feet financially and decided to go back to my one main job when I informed the catering company I no longer wanted the extra income but they convinced me to work one last shift. At this event, Kim worked for the catering company for the first time, but we exchanged less than 10 words that evening and she was not a permanent employee of the company. Something in me decided to continue my employment with the catering company...I now know it was God working on my heart and putting me where he wanted me to be. We were both at low points in our life. I was divorced, broke, away from my kids and filling a void with late nights. Kim was not walking with God, had just come out of a bad time, and was filling her void with late nights too.
Kim and I worked together again about a month later. We began to strike up a friendly relationship that relied on talks after we got off work which was usually late at night. We were not that interested in each other than that, but God started working on both of us. I had been cynical and sarcastic about her beliefs but one night she said something that had always resonated with me, "I don't believe we came from monkeys" and I was hooked. After a while I went to church with her and we did a study on the book by Lee Strobel "The Case for Christ". God was really working on me now. I started asking all kinds of questions and we began training for a half marathon together which gave us ample opportunity to talk about things. I had a talk with her father one evening and realizing he was one of the smartest men I would ever meet I began wondering to myself why someone so intelligent would believe this. I started to read t he bible and attend sermons on Sunday's. If we worked a real late night on Saturday we would attend the Buckhead Community service at 5 p.m., if we ended early enough on Saturday we would attend the sermon at Johnson Ferry Baptist Church. During the week we would meet to run and then get some dinner after we would run and talk some more. God brought the two of us together and I was starting to realize that.
We went to Virginia Beach to run the half marathon and with the run, car ride there and back, and down times in between I really starting thinking heavily about God, Jesus, my sinful nature and the ultimate sacrifice. I was running on Friday afternoon September 12, 2003 around Chastain Park when I gave my life to Christ. I stopped on the sidewalk, started walking and began to pray when I found myself in the middle of the fairway at the end of the prayer with a golfer yelling "four"...(I still have no idea why they yell four in golf). I went directly to JFBC and asked someone to pray with me and they were happy to even with the smell permeating from my body. I knew then that God had me continue my employment to get to know Kim and ultimately him and that he wanted the two of us to be together. When I told Kim this she did not share my same enthusiasm, except for being saved which she was completely thrilled about. I have to admit I was not much of a prize, a failed first marriage, children living out of state, finances getting better but not solid, I drove on old beat up mini-van and I had a roommate. Kim had never been too maternal and her thoughts of a life together with someone was to experience things together for the first time. God was working on her too.
After 2 years of dating, and 2 4-hour sessions with her father, we got engaged. We were married a year later and have just welcomed our first child into God's beautiful world. All I can say now is wow, God brought us together for a reason and this child may be it. My life is so much better now and I no longer fill the void with empty temptations but with the love of Jesus Christ. A few months after I gave my life to Christ, my ex-wife and children moved back to the Atlanta area. I would be foolish to write it has been a bed of roses because the opposite is true. One of the most difficult things about deciding to follow Christ is actually following Christ. I still fall away from God on occasion but now I know to repent, ask for forgiveness and persevere as if I am running a marathon...it is definitely not a sprint. I have witnessed my daughter and son come to know the Lord and be baptized. I wake with new enthusiasm to the day and look forward to each run knowing I get to spend that time alone with God....no music, headphones or anything, just me and the Lord.....wonderful. I have also discovered I am here for a purpose and have started taking the appropriate steps to further my education to take advantage of the talents God has bestowed upon me. If I ever get discouraged I can either read about Nehemiah and constructing the wall in a short time frame or I can read the Parable of Talents in Matthew to keep my focus.
I have been on my first mission trip recently where I got to share my story with people on the island of Jamaica while we were helping with the masonry construction on a new church down there and I cannot wait to go back next year. What an awesome way to help spread the truth of His kingdom. It is never too late.
I am still in the infancy of my walk with Christ but know where I will be in the end. Finding this organization that allows me to join together two of my favorite loves, running and Christ, has been great. When you are on a long 10-12-14 mile run and can talk about certain aspects of Revelation and not even realize you have just done 4 miles is an awesome experience. I look forward to my continued growth with Christ and getting to know other runners along the way.
In His Love and Glory,
Slade Casey
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