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WHO IS COLBY I know it sounds like a cliché, but the best place to start is at the beginning. When I was born, I was two months premature, weighing just 3 pounds, 4 ounces. My parents knew that there were complications before I was born, and my mom was counseled to have an abortion. After I was born, they were told that I would never walk or talk, and that if, by some miracle, I did, that I would be nothing more than a “vegetable”. Again, they were advised that having had two other healthy children, the best thing they could do would be to put me in an institution and to go on with their lives. My parents decided to defy such suggestions and committed to keep me, regardless of the sacrifice involved. They were able to get me into early intervention programs to work with high-risk children who had numerous health problems. I was given opportunities to learn and grow beyond what anyone could have envisioned. Up until I was about 4 years old, I am told that I didn’t talk much or really respond to much of anything. During this time, my parents met weekly with a prayer group from our church and they continually prayed for my healing, among other things. My mom told me that they prayed specifically that God would heal my mind. (This would come to make a difference, which I’ll explain later). As the story was told to me, at one point, I was in my mom’s lap one day, when, I suddenly informed her that I was hungry. She nearly passed out from realizing that I had just finished a complete sentence, much less talked at all! Over the years, the joke has become that I started talking and haven’t shut up since! From the time that I accepted Jesus at the age of seven – April 21, 1982 – there was something inside of me, even tho I didn’t know what was happening, that told me that God had more in store for me than I could ever imagine! Even to this day, I remember coming home after church and crying down on my knees in my parent’s room, saying that I realized how my sin had separated me from God and how I didn’t want that. It was so simple and pure – God’s love coming down, and Him coming to live in me – is the most amazing thing ever! The reason I said that God was doing things that I wasn’t aware of is because I am convinced that He was calling and preparing me for ministry work from the time I was saved – but I wouldn’t learn this for another 6 years, at the age of 13. My first youth pastor, Bruce Merrick, did more to impact me for God than most people (other than my parents) before that time. He was one of the first people from my church who was willing to show me that he could look past my disability to see my potential. He was the one who first introduced me to Dawson McAllister and his ministry – something that I will always be grateful for! In the summer of 1988, The youth camp pastor that week happened to be Dawson. I knew God was working on my heart to prepare me for youth ministry work, but I was resisting Him. Then, on the last night of camp, Dawson preached on the power and purpose of the cross. (he said later that he hadn’t planned that as his message, but God had him change it before he got up to speak). At one point, he said, “Let’s suppose that for some reason, God chose to come to you and tell you that Jesus was returning in 5 minutes, and you were the only one who knew it. How would you spend those 5 minutes?” At that instant. God simply asked me, Now will you surrender and let me do what I want to do thru you? I broke down and responded to the altar call to surrender to God for ministry. This was the beginning of something that many people thought I could never do, and it served to stretch my faith in ways that I could never have imagined! About a year and a half later, at the age of 15, God opened a door for me to work with Dawson’s ministry on a volunteer basis. This gave me amazing opportunities to work with their conference, counseling and radio ministries. Through my work with Dawson, God began to open doors for me to speak to local church youth groups. In 1994, I had the opportunity to do Dawson’s weekly call-in radio show with him, discussing teens with disabilities. I really do feel like God moved thru that and accomplished some great things. But looking back on it, compared to now, I see how my views and beliefs about some of what God teaches in Scripture has matured and changed over the years. At the time of the radio show, my church taught from the point of God using sickness and disability and the like to teach us things. This is how Dawson approached it, and at the time, I believed that. However, I no longer see it that way. I now believe that Satan had a hand in my disability (although, I have no doubt of God’s ability to use the situation). Scripture teaches that we are made in perfection (Psalm 139:13-16). Because of this, God cannot create disabilities – it would be against His nature to do so – to create something less than perfection. The disability comes as a result of Satan’s work thru being born into sin, not as a result “faulty design”. During the radio show, a verse that was repeatedly used, was John 9:1-3: “AS HE passed along, He noticed a man blind from his birth. His disciples asked Him, Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he should be born blind? Jesus answered, It was not that this man or his parents sinned, but he was born blind in order that the workings of God should be manifested (displayed and illustrated) in him” (Amplified Bible). Jesus wasn’t teaching that the disability was giving God the glory (as we were teaching on the show), but that the display of God’s power was in the man’s healing – not the presence of the disability! Earlier, I mentioned how the way my parents prayed for me when I was a baby would make a difference, let me explain: They prayed that God would heal my mind – He did – but not my physical body. It’s not beyond His power to do that, but He gave them only what they specifically asked for! I believe that His power was bound by the specifics of their prayer. Even if they had prayed for God to heal me completely, IF it were His will, He can’t work thru that prayer because it is spoken in doubt. God has established in His Word that healing is always His will. But when we preface it with “if,” that allows doubt to enter in, and we are warned that doubt cancels out faith (James 1:5-8). In 1995, I first came in contact with Rebecca St James and her family. In 1996, I worked a concert for them for the first time. Then, about a month later, they called and asked if I wanted to help their internet guy, a college student, with their website. As the saying goes, the rest is history, cause I’ve been there ever since! It’s been an amazing opportunity for ministry that God has given me. I’ve made life-long friends through the ministry and found numerous sources of tremendous support! Now, I am serving as Executive Pastor of Vertical Center Church in Fort Worth. We aim to help people put their relationship with God back at the center of their lives. When that happens, everything else will take care of itself and fall into place (Matthew 6:33). |