Lose Your Life Brought up in the Church and fallen away for nine years, I worked as a chef. I had been running with the cool crowd—partying, using drugs and having the “time of my life.” I needed real change, and I needed help but didn't really know how. I decided to visit church again to see if that would help. “For whoever desires to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake will find it” (Matthew 16:25). I still remember reading this verse to myself as I had just quit my job in the only career for which I was qualified and trained. Just from the sheer desire of wanting to change my life and trust in God, I had taken the biggest leap of faith I had ever taken. I decided to tell my employer that I was now going to keep the Sabbath. That didn't go over so well at the five-star French restaurant where Friday nights and Saturdays were the biggest days of the week. So I gave my two-week notice. I had absolutely no idea what I was doing, but at the same time I just knew I wanted changes in my life. I didn't know how to change, but I just started reading the Bible and the booklets from the Church. I started praying and fasting again on a regular basis. I didn't know if I was doing things right, but I knew I was trying. The more I read and went to Church, the more the fire inside of me increased for God's knowledge and truth. My girlfriend, on the other hand, was overwhelmed with all of this new information and lifestyle. She did start reading and praying, which resulted in spiritual matters consuming a lot of our conversations. She even went to church and part of the Feast one year. Finally she admitted that she didn't think she could live her life like this. After that statement, I knew our relationship had to end. We were both crushed. I just had to believe and trust in God that it was the right decision. For two years I worked on my own, and God really provided what I needed when I needed it. But it was also very hard, and my faith was tested every month. During these transitional years, I was also trying to work on myself and continue the quest of being better for God. I had gotten baptized but was still struggling with getting over old habits. Slowly but surely, I was getting sin out of my life. I had given up basically everything I knew—my job, my beliefs, my lifestyle, my love. The things I still needed to give up, God made apparent to me, and some lessons still had to be learned the hard way. I never gave up the idea of wanting to change and wanting to be better. In five years, giving up everything that I thought I knew has resulted in becoming a new man with a new heart, getting married, buying my first home and trying to live God's way each and every day. I had given up everything that I had thought was important to me, but I found out that what really is worth living for is God's truth and understanding the right way to live in His love while trusting Him as our Heavenly Father. When you're young, you don't know how life is really going to be or how hard it can be at times. Submitting to God in everything, trusting and believing Him is not easy, and sometimes it is painful. But when you have persevered and emerge on the other side, it is the best thing that anyone can experience. Now I know I had to go through some of the growing pains to become a son of God, but I can truly say that I have found my life. — Judd Servidio Austin, Texas, congregation “Something Just ‘Snapped'” My grandmother, Lillie Rowe Jones, and my mother, Bonnie Duncan, taught me all my life that Saturday was the Sabbath. I grew up listening to Herbert W. Armstrong with them. We didn't have a lot of understanding about how to keep the Sabbath until we found the Church while in the process of moving from Fort Worth to Longview, Texas, and started attending there. It seems strange to me the things I don't remember about my decision to stay in God's Church when parts of it are so totally clear in my mind. I was 11 years old when we started attending. When I was 13 I was listening to a sermon in the “field house” (as we used to call it), and something just “snapped” in my brain. I told myself, “This is God's Church, and I'm staying.” The strange parts are that I cannot remember who was speaking or what specifically was said that made me determine that. I sure am glad I did though! I was baptized March 14, 1968, in Houston, Texas. — Margaret Duncan Howard Columbus, Ohio, congregation A Calling Late in Life I had been Catholic for 70 years and am now living in a senior resident facility. I had been going to chapel there for mass every week, but I could not pay attention, no matter how I tried. I tried setting up and taking down the chapel and doing the readings, but it didn't help. I was very discouraged and thought I would have to continue this way until I died. One week, I was going shopping in the van provided by the resident facility. When I entered, I noticed that the driver had a Bible in his lap. After the shopping was over, I went up to the driver and talked to him about his Bible. I told him I was a Catholic and that they never taught me the Bible. He said that he would be happy to teach me. I have very bad eyes, and he got me a large-print Bible, which I dearly love. He also gave me many Church brochures from United Church of God, which I read and took notes from. A number of months later, after I read the booklet on baptism, I told him that I wanted to be rebaptized. At that time, I started meeting with an elder and a deacon from the Church, and I also read many more booklets from the Church. I had the chance to go to a church service; I loved it all. They then decided that I was ready for baptism. I was baptized on Sept. 18, 2006. My experience turned my whole life upside down, and I have never felt so close to God. Now I know that I have been called by God. I try hard every day to obey all the commandments. I read the Bible every day, and I am almost finished with it for the third time. Each time, I understand more. I got this calling quite late in my life, and I am not going to let go.