From Empty to Blessed

By Steven Griffin

FROM THE ARCHIVES PART 12: WINTER 2007

Prior to graduating Cum Laude from NC State University with a degree in mechanical engineering, I thought that I would have no problem landing a job. Yet, in spite of the fact that I was diligently searching, nothing seemed to be happening.  Then in early December 1993, one week before graduation and two weeks before my wife and I were to have our second son, while sitting in my driveway, I cried out in desperation, “God, I don’t know what I’m going to do! Please help me find a job!” Then I slowly made my way to the house, and just after I dropped my book bag inside the door, the phone rang.  It was the HR manager of a company in Wilmington calling with an engineering job offer!  “Whoooooooooo!!” I yelled as I jumped and danced around the house.  A little later I got to thinking, “Maybe God really does exist.”

Several months later, I had moved to Wilmington with my wife and our two boys. I loved my wife and children, my new job was great, and we loved our beautiful new home. As far as I was concerned, I had reached the pinnacle of success.  I thought I had acquired everything that I had ever wanted, but to my dismay, there was still something missing inside. 

Up to that point I had gone to church most of my life, but I really never knew God, and I didn’t think the Bible was really the inspired Word of God.  But, since it seemed like God had helped me when I needed a job, I prayed to Him about this emptiness I was feeling. Much to my surprise I felt like God responded to my prayer by asking me a question. He said to me, “Why don’t you believe the Bible?” Then we started this inner dialogue. I replied something like, “I don’t believe the Bible because there’s too much controversy surrounding it and so many different interpretations and, as far as I was concerned, it was just a nice collection of writings with some good lessons in it.” In reply to that I felt as if God said, “If you choose to believe the Bible, and it is true, then you’ll have everything to gain.  If it’s true and you don’t believe it, then you will have everything to lose.  And if you believe it and it turns out to be false, then you will have lost nothing.” After thinking about it a moment, I decided that believing the Bible made the most sense to me, so right then and there I made a choice to wholeheartedly accept the Bible as the true and inspired Word of God.

Two weeks after making this decision, at a church that we had visited several times before, I experienced something strange.  As the pastor preached, it seemed like that for the first time I could actually hear and understand what he was saying, and I began to come under an overwhelming conviction that I needed to receive Jesus. One key statement the pastor made was this: “Going to church doesn’t make you a Christian any more than standing in a garage makes you a car.” It made perfect sense to me, and by the end of his message I knew I needed to walk to the front. Because I assumed that everyone else was like me, I thought I would be one of many people who stood up to respond to his call to be born again. So that day I eagerly stepped forward and prayed to receive Christ as my personal Savior and to be baptized in the Holy Spirit.  And to my amazement, I was the only one who went up front.  After that point the emptiness that I had felt seemed to be filled, and my life began to have much more depth and meaning. This invisible God who had helped me find a job when I was desperate and who gently led me to accept the Bible as true, became very real to me on that great day in June 1994.

Since that time, I’ve seen how God has been faithful to me and my family in so many different ways. In 1999, He led us to move from Wilmington to help start a church in Boone. I got a great job as an engineer with a manufacturing company in Catawba and lived in Lenoir so I could commute from there, to work, and to church. One day as I was driving through Blowing Rock on my way home from church, in my mind I saw a snapshot of myself working on someone’s house, and I felt as if God said to me, “Wouldn’t it be nice if you could take care of houses for people who had second homes here but lived somewhere else like Florida?” “Great idea,” I thought, “but I don’t have enough money to quit my job and start up something like that.”  Then I quickly dismissed the idea.

Two and a half years passed, and on the last Sunday in May 2001 our pastor and his wife told me about a Christian couple in Blowing Rock who had told them that they were looking to hire a property manager for their vacation rental business. I didn’t think much about it at the time, but while driving home from church that day I was reminded about the vision I had had more than two years earlier.   I began to wonder if God was working something out for us here, and I started getting my hopes up.  I called the couple and set up a meeting.  When I met with them two days later, they reported to me that The Lord had since confirmed in their hearts that He wanted them to not only hire my wife and me to work for them, but after 18 months they were going to give us the company.   I was overwhelmed to the point of tears with joy and amazement at God’s goodness. 

After working out the details, we signed a contract to purchase the compny for $10, and The Lord told me, “If you honor Me by taking care of the people I send to this company, then I will honor you and bless this business.”   It’s been 5 years since we took ownership, and we’ve done our best to respect and care for all the people that we’ve encountered in this business.  I’m pleased to report that The Lord has blessed us with a sevenfold increase in sales, and now more than 25 families receive their primary income through our company.  God is so faithful!

That is just one of many examples of how God has helped and blessed me and my family since I first truly surrendered to Him in 1994.  I don’t, however, want to give the impression that everything has been easy since then. For example, we struggled financially for most of those years, and for two years my wife and I were actually separated. But through it all God even used those times to work His good into our hearts. He restored our marriage, blessed us financially, and taught us lessons that have strengthened us and enabled us to help other people who struggle in their relationships.

As we look forward to the future with a loving God, a beautiful family, great friends, awesome co-workers and a prosperous business, it remains our desire to bless others and to shine the light of Jesus everywhere we go and in everything we do.