Greatest Hits -- 2 Stories; Growth Story

This is a part of my ongoing series on significant moments in my life (more info here).

I've shared this story on a few occasions. It's simply a great reminder that obedience is the best route, and the greatest reward for obedience is in the obedience itself...

Derry Prenkert -- Growth Story

We all carry around the reality and consequences of the past that we’ve lived. I learned early on in my walk with Christ that repentance is a lot more than simply confessing of a sin, especially when our actions were against another person.

I began to truly persue after a relationship with Christ when I was 18 years old. In the few years before that I had been finding way to steal money from my parents. I would often sneak in and take out small to medium amounts of cash from their “secret savings spot.” It was $20 here, and $10 there, and if I was really risky, I’d grab $40 or $50. One time, they caught me. I was like most, I felt horrible. Not so much for what I did, but for getting caught. So I did what I needed to to make things right in my world. I confessed to the specific situation they had caught me in, and suffered the consequences from my parents (grounded and had to repay them). I did not bring up any of the other times, and I continued to find ways to steal money from them.

I would say that over the process of the three years, I had stolen several hundred dollars from my parents.

For years after I encountered Jesus true forgiveness and restoration, I knew I needed to make things right with my parents, yet my pride kept me from facing the truth of what I'd done. For nearly 9 years I held onto to this unresolved sin.

In the Summer of 2006, I was preparing to speak to a group of youth at a camp. My message that morning was going to be about repentance. I was going to walk through the different action steps of repentance…

Release – Letting go of the Sin;
Restoration – God making you right;
Reconciliation – making relationships right;
Restitution – Making things right

I was going to use the story of Zaccheus to illustrate restitution. When Zaccheus encountered Jesus, he realized that he had been a thief to people. He made things right by not only repaying those he'd stolen from. The Spirit of God convicted me in that moment.

I was going to get paid for the camp that I was speaking at. My wife and I had planned to use that money to get some tests done to find out why we haven't bee able to have children (another long story of personal growth in Christ). I had to make a phone call home to Janelle to explain what I sensed God saying to me. I told her that God had clearly spoken to me that morning, and that I thought I needed to make things right with my parents.

Fortunately, Janelle was very understanding, but we were both wrestling over the timing of this all. We were so excited when the opportunity to speak at that camp came our way. It was going to be extra income that could go toward the tests. Now, we weren't going to be able to come up with the money.

A week after the camp, in my time alone with God, I sat down and wrote a letter to my parents explaining that I needed to make restitution, and that they could not give this money back to me. I knew they wouldn't take it if I met with them face to face, so I was going to send it, then talk to them after they received it. I left the letter and money with Janelle before taking off for a meeting. She said she had to go to the post office to pick up a letter from some of our relatives. For some odd reason they had sent her something in certified mail. They are getting very old, and somewhat odd, so we really didn't think much of it.

Janelle went to the post office, dropped the letter to my parents in the mail, and picked up the letter from relatives. She got in our car, opened the letter, and found a note that read. "We want to give you part of your inheritance now in hopes that it will be useful." With it... a check!

The check was not only able to get the tests, we are now free of college debt, and able to save! This puts us in a spot if we were blessed to have a child, Janelle will likely be able to stop working all together. I know you can't outgive God, but this one blew me away. I have learned a valuable lesson on obedience, one that my ears had heard of, but now my eyes have seen!

You'd say that maybe the story stops here, and that the lesson is learned. But there is more. A week later, I got a call from my mom and dad, both clearly moved to tears, telling me that they loved me, were proud of me, and that they forgave me.

You might think that the moral of my story is that if you are obedient, God will reward you. I'm not sure that's the lesson. I would have taken my parents forgiveness over receiving an inheritance check any day. But even had I not received the check, or a response from my parents, the true freedom came when I sent that letter with the money to my parents. I had finally faced up to my past mistakes and made things right.

My question to you is this… are there any relationships that you need to make right? Is there any situations where you have wronged someone, and it's type to practice restitution? Can I encourage you as a brother in Christ to take care of these things for your own sake?