God Didn’t Give Up by Will Maxwell
Will Maxwell has been attending Calvary Baptist Church since 2012 and resides in Grand Prairie, TX with his wife and children. Will assists Calvary's Communications Team during the week in the sound booth as well as ushering and helping with the Judgement House production. When he's not working or pursuing his Electrical Engineering degree with UNT, Will enjoys playing video games, carpentry, and keeping his marksmanship skills honed.
God Didn't Give Up
Although
I wouldn’t know until years later, my journey to Christ started while I was in
the military. I enlisted in the Marine Corps
out of high school and served for nine years.
I was active duty during 9/11 and spent significant time deployed to the
Middle East. I was close to other Marines, men I considered brothers. Some of them were devout Christians and
whenever a situation would go awry they would look to me and say, “God was
watching over us today.” Being the hardened heart I was, I would brush it off
and crack a joke. Truth be told, I often
could not explain why certain things happened the way they did. I lost too many
brothers along the way. We didn’t grow
up together, but I would have traded my life for theirs without hesitation. I
carried a huge amount of guilt, not for what we were called to do, but the fact
that friends, my brothers, did not survive. I felt left behind. I wanted to be
with them cracking jokes and hanging out.
When
I left the Marine Corps life behind in 2008, I had a hard time dealing with
being in the “real world”. People seemed
rude and as if they truly did not care about anyone but themselves. I found it
difficult relating to anyone who had not been military and deployed. This was very dark period for me; I was fighting
an uphill battle every day. I leaned heavily on my wife of 14 years (and
counting) and a former Army brother I met after joining the civilian
world. We developed a bond quickly
because Daniel understood what it meant to have a rough night (because of my
nightmares) or that I felt off (because of my anxiety) or the pain was bad
today (from my back injury). He could look at me and know something was off and that
I needed him to just be there. Half the time we didn’t talk, and when we did,
we were cracking jokes.
Daniel
invited us to his church many times in the first years I was out of the
military. Eventually, my wife started
attending on a regular basis while I stayed home or “had something to take care
of”. Soon, my wife recommitted herself to Christ and invited a Life Group into
our home. I was absolutely against that,
but I love her, so I let it ride. As the weeks passed, I found myself getting involved
with the group. I also realized these people did not judge me in any way. They
knew about my military service, deployments to the Middle East, and they did
not care. They showed me unconditional love even with all of my faults (to
include anger, rage, and the occasional outburst).
Over
time, I started attending the church on a regular basis and enjoyed helping out
around the church (especially preparations for the Judgement House
production). I developed a friendship
with the Pastor, Brian Loveless, and Outreach Pastor, Ron Adams. I would meet
with these men regularly. They would always tell me that Christ will accept me,
faults and all, but I did not believe I was worth saving. I did not believe that Christ would want me
in His church, but God didn’t give up on me. Since I wasn’t listening to God’s
pull on my heart, He found a more forceful way to get my attention. In the span of a single week we had our car
repossessed, could no longer pay our bills, and everything else that could have
gone wrong did!
When
things fell apart, I had a meeting with Brian. I laid everything out and again
he pointed out, “Christ is after you and is calling you”. In that moment, I
understood that I could not do life my way. I needed Christ in my life. I
needed Christ to lead me and lead my family. That was when I finally accepted
Christ in the pastors office, crying and broken. The feeling that I had someone in my corner
was instant.
I
would be lying if I said my walk with Christ since that moment has been easy. There
have been trials and times where I fall flat on my face. The difference is
instead of trying to do it my way, I allow Christ to direct me through prayer
and open myself up to His “nudge” in the right direction. I still have flaws,
but they are being worked out through our trials. God puts me in situations
that are difficult, and once the initial shock is over, instead of getting
vengeful I start looking for the thing that I am supposed to learn from this.
In
2013, my wife and I had two miscarriages relatively close together. The losses tore me up inside, but instead of
letting it destroy me; my wife and I lead tour groups through the Judgement House
production. We explained what we were
going through to each and every person in our group and how we believed that
God would see us through. Our church family rallied around us too; giving
support, listening, and encouraging us.
A
few years later, God gave us two more sons.
One was born in January 2015. And
a year later, God put an 18-year-old man in my path, leading me to bring this
young man into the family. Now all four of our living children are thriving
and our family is complete.
I
have a saying, “family does not have to share our blood but must be willing to
shed blood for each other.” It’s an idea
carried over from my time in the military. You must be willing to help each
other, be there when a family member has needs, fill in the gap when one
appears. You must be willing to follow through with action, not be the type of
person who attends church each week just to check off a box. I have a large
church family now, and when we have rough patches, they’ve come running to
help. There are multiple women I call “mom”
who pray over us, brothers and sisters in Christ willing to help. Being a follower of Christ is more than
getting baptized and making a proclamation of faith. Those things are important, but there is much
more. You need to read the truth (the bible), you need to surround yourself
with friends who will speak the truth into you, and you need to be an active
member of your church (both through work and through tithing) and the most
important task of all - pray on a regular basis.
Pray
for your family, pray for others when they are in the middle of a trial, pray
for your pastor, pray for your church. One on one time with God through prayer
will open you up to direction and guidance.
You will be amazed how he uses you! Being a follower of Christ is not
easy. You will face trials on a regular basis. You will have more questions
than answers most of the time. However, eternal salvation and being in a
relationship with Christ is worth it. I wake up every day with all the faults I
went to bed with, but I now lay it all at the cross every day knowing He will
see me through. My sincere hope is that my
story will speak to someone who needs to hear it; someone struggling to
understand that Christ is there for you. His gift is free and all you have to
do is accept it. And if you have questions, come to our service at Calvary
Baptist Church on Sunday, we will help you answer them.
