Living a life that Matters

With my hero - Ron Merrell

I met Ron Merrell when a friend of mine ask me to attend Camber (Cornerstone’s young adult ministry) in early 2006. I was months from receiving divorce papers and was looking for something to plug into to make good Christian friends to start my journey with. I stayed after to meet Ron after hearing his sermon and he immediately asked me to lunch the next day. I was blown away by this. We met at Red Robin and we both got the whiskey BBQ burger (which is an amazing burger!). I shared my story and he just listened and showed me love and compassion. He immediately saw my heart to be a better man. What began was an amazing friendship in which Ron helped mentor and disciple me to use my pain and trails to become a Godly man for Christ. Ron became my hero and someone who I have modeled my life after.

I served many years in Camber under Ron mentoring young adult men. Despite the many hardships and difficulties I endured, Ron stuck with me and continued to encourage me. In 2008, Ron was called to ministry in California and I felt that was God telling that it was time to take what I learned from him and move forward in my walk with the Lord. I was on staff and doing ministry and God was using me. Then last Fall, I was removed from staff and was going through a difficult period of restoration. A few weeks later, God provided Ron Merrell as a guest speaker one Sunday morning. Seeing him was like a reminder from God that things will be ok. Just his hug alone brought me to tears and was all I needed from him for encouragement. He didn’t even have to ask to see that I was hurting. God provided my old mentor, my hero for comfort that day.

I am at a point now in my life where some loved ones have stopped believing in me. They have looked at circumstances and forgotten about my heart. Yet I can’t say much because I have found myself guilty of this too. God has worked in me so much lately and I’ve really grown up a lot in my walk and learned a lot about myself. But today was a day I was really needing someone to see my heart and believe in me. I was invited to attend Mission community church this morning by some wonderful friends who wanted to give back to me because of what I have done for them in the past. To my surprise Ron Merrell was the guest speaker today. I was already in tears walking through the door because I knew God was providing for me in my weakness before even hearing the message.

I enjoyed the worship and was pretty emotional throughout it.  Then Ron gave a message from 1 Timothy 4 on discipleship. I’ve discipled many people in the past, but I’m at a place where I am being refined and needing to be discipled to get back to where God wants me. The first part of Timothy talks about how many will fall from their faith after professing their faith in Christ. I know I have slipped in my faith recently and I have to include myself in this. But God wants to be tangible to us and he does that through relationships (v. 6).  Satan wants us to operate independently of God.  Discipleship is about walking together and the doctrines of grace are about bringing us in relation with each other. We need to train ourselves everyday for godliness like an athlete does for a sport (v.7-10). Salvation is both an event and a process. We are then to disciple others and not give up on then (I love Paul’s encouraging words to Timothy in verses 11-16)

I got my bear hug that I needed from Ron and my “It’s going to be alright” from him. I really needed that shoulder to cry on and let go of some of my pain. It was as if Christ just put his arms around me and said “Travis – I know who you are and if you trust me and put in the work, you will be just fine.” I’m thankful for the relationships around me and the outpouring of love I have received during this difficult time. God is working in me and he is giving me exactly what I need to continue moving forward. I’m thankful for good Godly men like Ron who just read hearts and encourages people to be who they are in Christ. And I take this Godly man’s words to heart – my hero, as he told me “Hang in there and keep going. Don’t give up!”