Hello! My name is Robin Lybeck. All throughout the Bible we read about God’s immense love for us and His intention for life on earth from the beginning. This blog is the story of my journey with God through His Word. He reveals Himself to us through His scriptures, and He blesses us through them, too. I write to share how God has brought me to believe His story of redemption and reconciliation through Jesus Christ.
Robin’s Journey: First I was Baptized and Taught
“Then children were brought to him that he might lay his hands on them and pray. The disciples rebuked the people, but Jesus said, ‘Let the little children come to me and do not hinder them, for to such belongs the kingdom of heaven.’ And he laid his hands on them and went away.”
Matthew 19:13-15
I am thankful that my parents baptized me as an infant because I cannot remember a time when I did not know the name of Jesus. Baptism washed away my sins and clothed me in the righteousness of Jesus who died to save me. It sent the Holy Spirit to indwell me. It gave me certainty that my eternal home will be with God in heaven. There is no greater gift they could have given me!
My parents followed my baptism with teaching. They taught me about Jesus through prayers recited before meals and at bedtime, and by reading books to me. When I was old enough, Catechism classes provided me formal teaching that took me through the steps of making my first confession and receiving my first communion. My mother made sure we attended church regularly during this time, although my father did not come with us.
I am not at all certain why we stopped attending church regularly after this. Yet, as I came to understand later in my journey, I already belonged to God. He never left me. The ways of the world that overtook me later did not change this. They only clouded my perception for a time…
Robin’s Journey: Then I experienced Loss and Feeling Lost
“Hear then the parable of the sower: When anyone hears the word of the kingdom and does not understand it, the evil one comes and snatches away what has been sown in his heart. This is what was sown along the path. ”
Matthew 13:18-19
My parents divorced about seven years after my first communion. This ushered in a very confusing period in my life, a time filled with trials. As children of divorce, my siblings and I had many adjustments to make. We had to move and lost the community of friends we’d been blessed by for 10 years. We had new step-parents and step-siblings, new households and household rules, new schools. Within two years, the four of us kids were split apart, too. My older sister and I lived with mom. Our two younger siblings lived with dad and his new wife. I felt an even greater sense of loss when this happened.
Because the Catholic Church no longer welcomed my divorced mom, I became convinced that some sins are not forgiven by God. I’ve since learned this is not correct, but sadly the evil one used this misunderstanding and snatched away the seeds of faith that been sown earlier in my life. As I conformed more and more to the ways of the world, I became involved in things that took me further and further away from God. The paths I went down led to poor decisions and feelings of despair. I prayed sometimes, but I doubted that God heard them or cared about me.
I know now that God was pursuing me all along, that it was the Holy Spirit who kept trying to get my attention. I was awakened when I experienced something that could only have come from God…
Robin’s Journey: Following this, I was Pursued by Jesus
and He awakened my Faith
“What do you think? If a man has a hundred sheep, and one of them has gone astray, does he not leave the ninety-nine on the mountains and go in search of the one that went astray? And if he finds it, truly, I say to you, he rejoices over it more than over the ninety-nine that never went astray. So it is not the will of my Father who is in heaven that one of these little ones should perish. ”
Matthew 18:12-14
1. Searching
I was very involved in the occult in my late teens and early 20s. I had my astrological chart cast every year and followed my transits closely. I used numerology to evaluate whether someone I was dating was compatible with me or not. I relied on the i-ching (the casting of coins) to make decisions about what I should do. I was obsessed, afraid to make a move without some entity giving me permission.
I began to feel uneasy about my reliance on the occult and my need to use it to make decisions. The first thing I let go of was astrology. That was followed by numerology. The i-ching was the last to go. I had no idea why it suddenly felt so important to end my reliance on them, but I listened and stopped.
2. Warned
I still get goosebumps when I remember this one. I grew up in a family impacted by alcoholism (my mom’s) and it plays an important role in this story.
In my mid-30s I experienced symptoms of PMS with each monthly cycle. I asked my doctor if there was anything that could be done to reduce the symptoms. His solution was to write me a prescription for tranquilizers. When it came to filling it, however, I had a strong sense I should not do this. I listened. A few weeks later I threw the prescription away and didn’t think about again for years.
Fast-forward 10 years. My mom had died. As I struggled with grief, I reached out to a cousin to talk. Her mom had been an alcoholic, too, so I knew she’d understand all of the conflicting emotions I was feeling. She loaned me a book that had helped her: “Another Chance” by Sharon Wegscheider Cruse. The book describes what happens in families impacted by alcoholism.
I felt like Helen Keller at the pump with Annie Sullivan! Just as Helen was given the key to understand the world when Annie spelled w-a-t-e-r into her hand, I finally had the key to understand what had happened to my family.
Wegscheider-Cruse described distinct roles family members assume: the enabler, the hero, the scapegoat, the lost child and the mascot. As I read the chapters, I saw myself and my siblings. Our names could have been written on the chapters so accurately were our lives and struggles described. I read these words in the description of my role: prone to work-aholism, migraine headaches and dependency on tranquilizers. I was stunned! I shivered as I remembered the prescription for tranquilizers I’d had in my hand—and the warning not to fill it. What if I hadn’t received it? Or heeded it? How different might my life have been? I was deeply grateful even though I didn’t know where the warning came from.
3. God Comes Knocking
God used a mundane situation on an ordinary day to intercede in my life in a way that let me know I was hearing from Him. It happened a couple of years after the discovery of our family roles.
I was reading a world history book during my lunch hour at work, required for a course I was taking via home study to complete my AAS degree in Graphic Design. On this day, I was reading about Martin Luther and the Reformation. I read that Luther believed all people should have a Bible, read it and know the scriptures. I knew instantly I believed this! I felt it body and soul. The Catholic church doesn’t teach this and it’s the only faith instruction I had as a child. Because I was directed to have a Bible and read it, I knew that God was calling me to do this.
When I got home from work that night, I told my husband, Tom, “Guess what! I am a protestant, just like you!” We said a prayer of thanks to God. I bought my first Bible and began to read it. We began to talk about finding a church home. But we dallied and four years later, God came knocking again…
4. 9/11
I tell the full story in my post titled “Son Rising” (linked here). I summarize the intercession below.
A few days after the attack, Tom and I attended an evening prayer vigil in Wash Park. As we stood holding hands with strangers, praying, crying, sharing the deep grief we all felt, I again heard from God. He told me that either I received Jesus as my Savior or I didn’t. No middle ground, no picking and choosing what parts of the Bible I believed. When it comes to Jesus, it is yes or no. Did I follow Him? Did I proclaim Him as my Savior to others? I answered, “Yes, Lord, I do.”
Again we talked about finding a church home. And again we dallied. God knocked again, this time only two months later.
5. Head On
Just before Thanksgiving, Tom accepted a day-long work assignment at a branch location of his company. His boss had asked him to take the place of a co-worker who refused to go. As he drove to the location, he crossed a bridge over a culvert and hit ice, losing control of our truck. He found himself on the wrong side of the road, in the path of an oncoming car. He thought his life was over. Just before impact, the tires found pavement and he was able to pull hard to the right. He drove off the road into an enormous Ponderosa pine. It stopped the truck with its long branches, before it reached the tree trunk. The truck was totaled but Tom wasn’t injured. We thanked God, grateful beyond measure that he was okay! We talked again about finding a church home.
But again we dallied. God knocked again two months later…
6. I See
This knock upon the door from God started with a routine eye exam. I recount my experience in my post titled “Why, Jesus?” (linked here). Here I share the moment I ran into the arms of Jesus…
The doctor was testing my peripheral vision and I simply could not see how many fingers he was holding up. This discovery led to a full scale “field of vision” test a day later, which led to a referral to an eye specialist. I had to wait more than a week to get an appointment with the specialist. The specialist would be able to tell me whether the problem was in my eyes or in my brain, whether or not I would lose my sight or, perhaps, my life if the problem was in my brain.
Scared beyond anything I’d ever known, I was on my knees every day praying to God. The specialist decided to scheduled me for an MRI before he would make his final diagnosis. This meant another week waiting for the MRI, then another week waiting for the results.
As I continued to pray to God throughout this tense period of waiting, it finally struck me in my soul that I should be honoring the God I was praying to, by going to His house on Sundays. This is what finally brought us to find our first church home!
As I write these words, more than 20 years have passed since Tom and I found our first church home. Our lives have been forever transformed, blessed beyond measure by God’s persistence in calling us home to Him.
“No longer do I call you servants, for the servant does not know what his master is doing, but I have called you friends, for all that I have heard from my Father I have made known to you.”
John 15:15
Jesus has the ability to reveal things to His friends—that includes us when we receive Him—that we cannot know any other way. I am a witness to His intercessions through the experiences shared above! In addition to Jesus interceding for me, God has spoken to me through His word and through the people He has placed in my life. It is His Holy Spirit that told me to listen to Him!
The scriptures that began my journey of transformation through the Word of God, and that have called me to Proclaim His greatness, are these three:
