Walking with Jesus: Inspirational Footprints of Faith and Transformation

20 years ago, I awoke from a life-saving surgery only to find that I was left completely blind.

And since that day, I've learned a lot about life, a lot about living, and a lot about myself.

And here on this podcast, I want to share those insights with you.

Because, friend, if you are still searching for your purpose, still trying to understand why, or still left searching for that next right path to take, well, consider this to be your stepping stone to get you from where you are to where you want to be.

What's happening, my friend, and welcome back to the podcast.

My name is Kevin Lowe, your host as well as transformation coach.

Today is episode number 209.

And baby, I hope you enjoyed episode 208 that came out just a couple of days prior.

That, of course, was my interview with Alex San Filippo, an amazing guy who has truly impacted my journey in podcasting.

And anyways, today, though, we're actually gonna go back a few more episodes to episode number 200.

If you caught that, that was my interview with my grandmother, who I call Nana.

And inside of my conversation with Nana, there was one part where we mentioned how she is the one who led me to know Jesus as my Lord and Savior.

Well, today I want to expand on that a little bit more.

Matter of fact, I want to take you on the journey to let you see my walk with Christ, to share my testimony, to let you get a little glimpse of a part of my life, a part of what makes me me.

And well, I just felt like this was the perfect opportunity for me to share it with you today.

So if you're ready, I would love for you to lean in, to listen a little bit harder, maybe turn up the volume, as I share with you a deeply personal, meaningful part of my life.

Because this is my testimony and this is my walk with Christ.

Before proceeding with today's episode, I do just want to say one thing.

In that in this life, we are guaranteed to have problems.

We are guaranteed for things not to work out, for things to get us discouraged, and to have us thinking, oh my goodness, why am I even trying?

I mention this for a couple of reasons.

Because one, well, it ties in perfectly with what I'm talking about in today's episode, about developing a relationship with our creator.

But it also hits close to home on the very basic, most simple of levels.

Today I am in my recording studio, and I have no idea if what I'm recording is going to sound good at all.

Because, well, I'm having some technical difficulties today.

And, well, I don't know how to fix it.

That's the problem with technology.

I love it when it works, I hate it when it doesn't.

But I realized that I had to go ahead and give it a shot.

And the reason I felt like that is because I thought, you know what?

If there's any episode that I release that doesn't sound quite up to par, then this would be the one for it to be.

Because it shows us that life doesn't always have to be perfect.

We just have to keep moving through it.

And we experience the good times and the bad, and it all levels out in the end.

So, with that, let me share with you my walk with Christ.

I never could have imagined the implications of that day.

As a 12-year-old kid in the sixth grade, sitting in his grandparents' living room saying a prayer.

A prayer that had significance to it, but a prayer that I had no idea how powerful it would be.

I would have no idea the impact that prayer would have on the rest of my life.

Of course, the prayer I'm referring to is the one that I spoke about earlier that was talked about inside of episode 200 with my Nana, where I accepted Jesus as my Lord and Savior.

But from that day forward, I would continue to grow closer and closer with my creator, up until, well, we'll get to that point.

Besides for my Nana, my family, we really didn't go to church back then.

I was too busy on the weekends, out with my dad, in the woods, riding dirt bikes, or we were out on the boat fishing, having good times.

Church was just something that I didn't grow up in.

My only experience going to church was when I would occasionally spend the night on Saturday with Nana and go to Daytona First Baptist with her Sunday morning.

Besides for Nana, really the only other influence I had in terms of getting to know God and who God is and in the stories of the Bible really didn't happen until high school.

And there were two influences in high school that I want to talk about because each of them, without even knowing it at the time, was helping me to know a little bit more about God, about Jesus, about this relationship.

The first was something we called church lunch.

Now, I can't remember if it happened maybe once a month or every other week, but one of the nearby churches to our high school would put together a lunch for us at Seabreeze High School to attend.

I think it only cost something like$2.

And you got this amazing buffet lunch where they would partner with area restaurants and would have an amazing lunch all laid out for us.

And while we ate and had fun, the pastor of the church would get up and he would do some type of short message.

It was always super high energy, super fun, because heck, we're a bunch of high school kids.

And most of us were just there for the good food at a cheap cost.

But a little bit of God, a little bit at a time, it makes an impact.

Now, about this same time, I also took part in a new believers class.

Now, this was much more about learning the Bible and getting to know God than it was the fun and wild craziness of church lunch.

This was done with one of our teachers, Mr.

Gamosh, partnered with David Fay, who was actually from my Nana's church, from Daytona First Baptist.

And they put together the New Believers class.

And really, to be honest, that was it as far as the influence on me and my faith journey leading up to my junior year of high school.

And of course, in that junior year is when everything changed for me in October of 2003, when I was diagnosed with a brain tumor.

And that brain tumor would lead to me going into surgery to have it removed and unexpectedly coming out to be left completely blind.

Here I was, a kid who had everything taken away from me.

I had my very ability to see robbed from me.

My truck was gone.

Everything I loved, everything I dreamed about was taken from me in an instant.

All I had were two things.

That was my faith and my family.

Now, here's the significance of that.

Like I said, it wasn't like I grew up going to church every Sunday, going to Sunday school, doing church on Wednesday evenings.

No.

All I had was my nana and then those little bit of influences throughout high school.

And yet it was enough to light a spark that would create a fire inside of me to make a faith so strong that I could overcome the unthinkable, that through my faith, that through Jesus Christ, I would get through the worst part of my entire life.

And that is how strong the power of Jesus is.

I know I've shared this story many times before on the podcast.

And well, I feel like I can't help but share it here.

Because again, it's part of this journey and it so beautifully illustrates this time in my life is that my mom will tell you that when we came home from the hospital, that she would hear me in bed at night talking.

I guess maybe she could hear me from the living room.

And finally one morning, she asked me, Kevin, who is it that you talk to at night when you go to bed?

And she said that I so plainly said Jesus.

I talked to Jesus because he's always there with me.

There's that famous poem about footprints in the sand.

And in the poem, it talks about there being two sets of footprints at many points in the person's life.

One set was their own, one set was Jesus's.

But then there are other parts of their life when they were going through the hardest times when there would only be one set of footprints in the sand.

And they questioned why would Jesus leave them when they were in the worst part ever.

Well, that's the beautiful part.

Because that one set of footprints was Jesus'.

Because at that moment, Jesus was carrying this man.

At this point in my life, Jesus was carrying me.

It's the only way that I can understand how I made it through, how I got through it was that Jesus carried me.

I believe in every ounce of my being that what happened to me was in God's plans from the very beginning.

I believe wholeheartedly that God knew what was going to happen to me.

He had it all planned out.

And he knew that Kevin would be able to serve a purpose far greater in this life, having gone through what he will go through than if he had not, if I had not.

And I find such peace in that, in the thought that my creator knew from the very beginning how it would all go.

He knew how the story would end, because, well, he created the story in the first place.

And I've learned in my life that God does nothing for nothing.

Everything in this life has a purpose, a good purpose.

Even if at the moment there seems to be no good that could possibly come out of it, it's all for a reason.

A reason far greater than we could ever imagine.

I can look back on my childhood and I can so clearly see how God spent the first 17 years of my life preparing me for what was to come.

He gave me characteristics that would equip me to better be able to adapt to this new world, like being super organized.

I was a kid who enjoyed organizing my bedroom, rearranging the kitchen pantry.

Everything had a place.

And I loved it like that.

Well, after going blind, let me tell you what, that's a major asset to have.

It helps you be able to find stuff way easier when everything has a place.

But it goes more than that because God allowed me to have a childhood in which I got to do and see and experience so much.

From flying to Alaska, watching a moose run across the runway, to salmon swimming upstream, to watching otters float on their back while eating a clay em while we were taking a glacier tour.

To being back in Florida, my home state, riding dirt bikes in the Ocala National Forest with my dad.

To then up in Snowshoe, West Virginia, skiing down the slopes of a beautiful mountain.

I got to see, I got to do so much.

All because God knew what was going to happen when I turned 17.

Now, after becoming blind, things weren't easy.

Just because I had a strong faith, that didn't mean that I didn't get upset.

No.

I think every single night for as long as I could remember, I cried myself to sleep.

I would scream and I would cry into my pillow.

I would pound my fist.

I would beg and I would plead God to let me see again.

Just please let me open my eyes and see again.

And yet every single morning, I would wake up and I would see the same thing that I did when my eyes were closed.

But here's the thing is I had a relationship with my creator.

And at those moments of rage, when I would be so upset, so angry at God, I would always end by apologizing, by saying how sorry I was, asking God to forgive me, to please not leave me, because I knew that I couldn't do this without Him.

I knew I was nothing without Him.

But over time, things would get easier.

I would adapt more and better to this new world.

And over time, I would start to see how I could use what happened to me to be a benefit to others.

I started speaking at schools, elementary schools, talking to the little kids.

And then I went on to middle schools, talking to those students, getting to share with them how I'm able to overcome what happened to me.

I'm able to use the power of technology to make this world a little bit easier, even though I can't see.

I also began speaking at churches, sharing my story, my testimony, the very story that I'm sharing with you today.

The story of how a boy had his world ripped away from him.

And yet he learned to see in the darkness, thanks to an amazing God.

Because God knew if I carry him long enough, soon enough I'll be able to set him back down and he'll be able to start walking again.

And that is what I have done.

That is what I continue to do.

It's been nearly 20 years since that day.

And yet at times it still hurts as if it was yesterday.

But Jesus has taught me.

Jesus has showed me that I can still have a good life, that this life is so beautiful, even when you can't see it.

Because Jesus has taught me, has showed me how to see this world in a whole new, beautiful way.

And well, I don't know.

I don't know that I would have ever wished it would have been like this.

I never would have wanted to go through the pain that I've gone through.

But in some weird kind of way, I can't help but think that I'm appreciative for the way it did work out.

Because God's plans are always better than our own.

I can guarantee you that.

The biggest thing that I want to share with this today is for you to understand that this world is not perfect, that we will not be without pain.

We will endure suffering.

We will endure hard times because this is a failed world.

That is why Jesus Christ came to this world.

That is why God sent his son here to this world, who died on the cross and yet rose again three days later.

He took on the sins of this world.

If you've made it this far, if you're still paying attention, I want you to realize this is that if you don't have a relationship with your creator, that it's never too late.

I don't care how old or young you are, and I especially don't care who you are, what you are, because none of that matters.

We are imperfect people.

We are sinners.

Whether we want to be or not, we are.

And that's okay.

And I can tell you this much: as hard as this life is, I am so grateful that I have a relationship with Jesus Christ to guide me, to be with me every step of the way.

And I can only hope, I can only pray that if you don't have that relationship with your creator, that you too will get to experience that for yourself.

If this is you, if this resonates with you, and you don't have a relationship with your creator, please don't think that you have to be some perfect person.

You don't have to go to church every Sunday.

You don't have to be whatever imaginary figure you have in your mind.

No, you're perfect just the way you are.

All you have to do is to accept Jesus as your Lord and Savior, to recognize and believe in your heart that Jesus came to this earth, that he died on the cross and he rose again for you, he would do that just for you.

And when you can say that, when you can believe that and accept Jesus as your Lord and Savior, well, my friend, you can begin to have the most powerful force at work in your life.

And that's just the beginning because, as I said, I like to think of it as a relationship.

And you want that relationship to grow because the more it grows, the stronger it is, the better your life will be.

I hope that by me sharing a little bit more about my walk with Christ, that maybe it will be that little spark inside of you to light a little fire, to let it start blazing.

Because I'm telling you, a life with God is the only way to live.

I know today's episode is a little bit different than most, but I just felt like it was time for me to fully put it out there for you to understand the importance of this in my life, and that I am only here because of God.

I am only here because I have walked every step of the way with my creator by my side, if not carrying me when I'm too weak to walk by myself.

If there is ever anything that I can do for you, even if that's as simple as just talking, maybe talking more about what I'm talking about today, or anything else on your mind, please know that there's a link inside of today's show notes where you can easily get in touch with me.

You can set up a time for us to talk, and let's just talk about what you've got going on.

That's what I'm here to do, to help you.

To take this from a podcast to a one-on-one phone call with you, that would mean the world to me.

So, friend, I thank you for being here.

I thank you for being a part of my journey.

And I just truly hope and pray that today's episode will leave an impact on you, or maybe somebody you know and you share it with them.

All right, until next week, my name is Kevin Lowe, and this is Grit Grace and Inspiration.

Have an amazing day.