Journey of Faith

November 26/November 27, 2018

The following is a testimony about Jesus Christ...

Some days change your life forever.  August 14, 2009 was one of those days for me.  Someone T-boned the car I was driving on the freeway. My car was totaled.  When they took me to the emergency room, the MRI technician found cancer in my pancreas.  It was my Jonah moment.  For years I had been running from serving God; I had been running towards serving myself.  I justified my behavior by rationalizing I was working non-stop to support my family.  

August 14, 2009 brought my running to a halt; my car crash on that day changed everything.  I should have died from that car crash.  On that day I was “spit” out of a whale of circumstances.  I knew I had to change things.  I had to pick up the cross Jesus had left for me and stop making excuses.  I decided to commit to serve in the youth ministry at my church.  While awaiting a surgery to remove the cancer, I began serving faithfully.  Then, on November 16, 2009, I had the surgery; I was given a second chance. Moving to Texas was a major part of my faith journey. Texas wasn't part of my original plans. But in 2007, God revised my plans.

None of this would have been possible had I not take a major leap of faith in 2007.  That is when my first child (Mighty) was born. He was a game-changer. He made me ponder what would be best for my household. There were so many things to consider from the moment I found out my wife was pregnant. From employment opportunities, to insurance, how it would affect Mighty was paramount.  And just when I thought I had it all figured out, my son who was not even 4 months old, convinced his mama she needed to stay at home beyond her job’s maternity leave.  One problem:  we lived in the San Francisco Bay Area.  I worked at a Title I school (a school in a low-income school district) and my wife worked at a Christian non-profit in the same neighborhood where I taught.  We couldn’t stay in the Bay; we had to move. I got a retroactive pay raise, and we used it to cover our moving expenses.  (The amount of my raise was almost the exact amount of money needed to rent a moving truck.)  All we knew was we needed to live out this new vision of Althea staying at home with Mighty...we knew we could not do it California (the way we wanted).  We were officially moving to Texas.

I kicked and screamed (internally) all the way from California to Texas. My pouting caused me to really dismiss the blessings that came my way. An example of the blessings included my sister-in-law letting us stay with her family for several months while I looked for a job. This led me to going to a job searching class that helped me be more strategic in job searching. From that training I got a job teaching high school English, psychology, and sociology.  A college recruiter came to my high school recruiting students and told me his campus needed a sociology instructor.  Eventually, I got hired as an adjunct faculty member at a career college; the adjunct position made me a desirable pick to become the college’s first (and only) Dean of Student Services for the next 4 ½ years.  All those changes happened in less than 2 years after moving to Texas.  They happened because I took a leap of faith. That leap of faith led me to that fateful day traveling southbound on Interstate 35E. Then, on November 16, 2009, the cancer was removed; God gave me a chance to do-better. Had we stayed in California, the cancer would have spread, and I never would have known.  The cancer in my pancreas would have killed me.  Pancreatic cancer is a silent killer.  I showed no signs.  Yet, it was not my time.  God was not done with me; I had work to do.  However, that work was only possible because of the journey of faith Althea and I began in 2007.  After the surgery, two-thirds of my pancreas was gone; my spleen was gone.  Even still, my body continued to function just fine.  By the time I healed, I was back to serving at church.  Then, my son wanted to come to church...then my daughter wanted to come. Eventually, my entire family was coming and serving like we had never served before.  In the process of all of that, I found a purpose that allowed me to serve Christ through psychology.  I enrolled in a doctoral program in August of 2011.  My reality in 2018 is the manifestation of unexpected detours that brought Christ back to the center of my life.  

I sit here 9 years after that car crash feeling even more faithful in Christ, my marriage, and in my relationships with my children.  So many blessings would have never happened if I did not embrace the detours.  I may not have liked each detour that has been sent my way, but my faith supersedes my need to understand.  I understand there is a purpose; often a purpose that is beyond my comprehension.  I believe that God knows what He is doing. In the end I will be stronger, and I will be a conduit for God to bless others.  Thus, I embrace the detours.  Detours keep coming my way.  And it is all good.  I am in it for the long-run, because slow and steady wins this race!

'Til I write again,

Elgrie J. Hurd III