So, who am I and why would you listen to anything I have to say? My name is Ed Beam from Fort Mill SC, and I want to encourage you to experience Jesus for yourself, on your terms, and begin a relationship that will bring joy, peace, contentment, and purpose to your life. It’s time that you came to your senses and understood that God wants a relationship with you. Take note, I didn’t say anything about going to church, because you can experience Jesus and have a relationship with him without “religion.”

If you are looking for someone with a Paul on the road to Damascus blinded by the light experience, you will need to look somewhere else. My entire life has been church-centered and God-directed. My walk with God began before birth as I am a proud member of a group called the Painting Party Kids. To make a long story short, I was one of twelve children born in my local church over a year and a half. This group grew up together in the sixties before the advent of the game controller. We all had godly parents who placed great importance on the church and a relationship with God. It’s all I ever knew.

I personalized my faith story in senior high at youth camp one year when there was an altar call not for first-time believers, but for people who wanted to commit the rest of their lives to following Christ. I went forward not thinking anything more of that commitment until recently, the last 15 years or so.

After college, I needed somewhere to go with my faith. One of my spiritual mentors bet me and another guy $50 to teach junior high Sunday School for one year. Not quite 40 years later, he is a United Methodist pastor in Pennsylvania, and I spent 25 years in youth ministry. It was during these youth ministry days that I felt closest and most challenged by God. We didn’t have a huge youth group, but I would match the spiritual growth experienced against anyone’s.

One of my favorite things to do was to give young people an opportunity to experience God for themselves and claim the name of Christ follower. That started by going to conferences, the Creation festival, two retreats a year, and various other events that would happen. I had an aha moment at the very first Youth for Christ conference we went to in Niagara Falls, and quite honestly my life hasn’t been the same.

As I got older, I began to understand that I had lost a step physically and that maybe I should look for other outlets. This has led to working in men’s ministry which I have done for quite a few years now. I believe that along with youth, no greater group needs to experience Jesus than men who will not be the same. This will bring about change in their homes, communities, workplaces, and their world.

I retired in 2017 and my wife and I moved to a 55-plus community in South Carolina. We knew that God was not finished with us yet. For the past two years, I wrote a year-long devotional Crossing Your Bridges which is a year-long series of daily devotions beginning in Genesis and going through Revelation. It did not sell a lot on Amazon, but it was a great experience anyway.

That’s a brief look at my journey. I am thankful to so many people for their encouragement, prayer, and guidance. I have quite a crowd in heaven who is cheering me on every step of the way, and I appreciate that. I look forward to continuing in ministry and encouraging others on their spiritual journey by sharing insights from my experience.

My Story

So what’s your story? I can remember being asked that question by Dr. Joe White a well-known speaker and author upon our first meeting back in 2005. Joe was coming to Pennsylvania to do what would turn out to be a series of men’s events with his ministry Men at the Cross. I had the task of assembling a team on the ground to help pull these events off. The first time I met him, he asked me this question as soon as we got in the car. We had not even pulled out of the hotel parking lot when he asked “So what’s your story?”

Being a lifelong Christian as I was, I knew the answer to that question, but it got me thinking, suppose I hadn’t been, what would I have said? The truth of the matter is we all have a story where God is concerned. Even the most devout atheist or non-believer has a story where God is concerned. It may center on their rejection of unbelief, but it is their story just the same. If you fall into this category, I want you to have hope. Stay with me and we will get to how you can hope even in today’s craziness. The answer lies in one relationship that you can experience even today. You can find peace, joy, and purpose, and that is what we want to focus on today.